Sheng Zhang

Sheng Zhang is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, affiliated with the McGovern Medical School and the Institute of Molecular Medicine. His research focuses on aging-related neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.

Research Interests:

• Elucidating the endogenous function of the Huntington’s disease gene Huntingtin (Htt) using Drosophila models.
• Investigating the regulation of intracellular protein aggregates, a common pathological hallmark of NDs, through genome-wide RNA interference (RNAi) screens.
• Developing in vivo assays to analyze dopamine handling in Drosophila dopaminergic neurons to study Parkinson’s disease mechanisms.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Genetics and Epigenetics, Yale University (2001).

Laboratory Overview:
His lab employs multi-disciplinary approaches, including neuroscience analyses, high-resolution imaging, genome-wide assays, and genetic manipulation tools in the Drosophila model system to dissect pathogenic mechanisms underlying human NDs.