Ping Zhang

Emerging evidence suggests that human genetic variation underlying disease susceptibility plays a critical role in drug response variability through its regulatory effect on the transcription of target gene. However, there are challenges in harnessing of susceptibility loci for target identification and therapeutic application, including limitations in (i) exposition of causal variants within susceptibility loci, (ii) understanding of the context specificity, and (iii) mechanistic insights into their influence on cellular behaviours and clinical outcomes.

My current research focuses on systematically prioritising and characterising genetic variation to understand the regulation of acute immune responses and endotoxin tolerance, the interplay between innate and adaptive immunity, and the epigenetic mechanisms that mediate immune tolerance. I also develop computational and experimental approaches to identify epigenetic features and modulators, including compounds that can alter epigenetic states and have potential as novel therapeutics. This work integrates multi-omics sequencing, eQTL mapping and bioinformatic/statistical analyses to study genetic variation in disease-relevant primary immune cells and human iPSC-derived models.

I hope to build on the work to translate genetic and epigenetic insights into new biomarkers and therapeutic strategies.