Guo-Fang ZHANG, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dr. Guofang Zhang joined the Department of Nutrition as Research Associate in Dr. Brunengraber's lab in June 2006. Prior to arriving in Cleveland OH, Dr. Zhang was a Post-Doc at Ghent University in Belgium since October 2001.
BACKGROUND
Guofang Zhang received his B.S. and M.S. (both in Chemistry) from Shaanxi Normal University (China) in 1995 and 1998, respectively. In 2001, Guofang earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Nanjing University (China). Soon after, Dr. Zhang moved to Belgium with his wife Shuang. There he simultaneously attended 'Vrije Universiteit Brussel' in Brussel and 'Ghent University' in Ghent, respectively earning a Master's degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and working as a Post-Doc.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Guofang Zhang's research focuses on a new pathway which catabolizes 4-hydroxyacids. These compounds are products of lipid peroxidation (such as 4-hydroxynonenal and 4-hydroxyhexenal) and drugs of abuse (4-hydroxybutyrate and 4-hydroxypentanoate). This pathway involves a new class of acyl-CoA esters: 4-phosphoacyl-CoAs formed by the action of a kinase on 4-hydroxyacyl-CoAs. We found that this pathway exists not only in mammalian cells, but also in yeast and some bacteria such as Pseudomonas putida. Thus this pathway has been conserved through evolution.
More specifically, Dr. Zhang investigates the regulation and the evolution of this pathway using a combination of metabolomics and mass isotopomer analysis. As models, his team uses isolated perfused rat organs (liver, heart), live rats as well as cultured microorganisms such as Mycobacterium smegmatis.
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