Xiaochang Zhang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

SFARI Investigator Website

Xiaochang Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Genetics and a member of the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Chicago. His group focuses on neuronal gene regulation by mRNA isoforms and seeks to understand how brain cell types are specified over time and changed in neurological conditions.

Zhang received a Ph.D. from Fudan University, where he studied SUN-KASH nuclear envelope proteins in brain and neuromuscular development under the guidance of Min Han. As a postdoctoral fellow, he worked with Christopher A. Walsh at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital, where he studied alternative splicing in cortical development and genetics of structural brain malformations.

Funded Projects

Targeting converging exons to treat autism spectrum disorders

Awarded: 2024
Award Type: Pilot

Identification of cell-type-specific isoforms of autism risk genes expressed during neocortical development

Awarded: 2020
Award Type: Pilot

SFARI Funded Publications

Single-cell long-read sequencing in human cerebral organoids uncovers cell-type-specific and autism-associated exons. Yang Y., Yang R., Kang B., Qian S., He X., Zhang X.

Orgo-Seq integrates single-cell and bulk transcriptomic data to identify cell type specific-driver genes associated with autism spectrum disorder. Lim E.T., Chan Y., Dawes P., Guo X., Erdin S., Tai D.J.C., Liu S., Reichert J.M., Burns M.J., Chan Y.K., Chiang J.J., Meyer K., Zhang X., Walsh C., Yankner B.A., Raychaudhuri S., Hirschhorn J.N., Gusella J., Talkowski M., Church G.

Identifying cell type specific driver genes in autism-associated copy number loci from cerebral organoids. Lim E.T., Chan Y., Burns M.J., Guo X., Erdin S., Tai D.J.C., Reichert J.M., Chan Y.K., Chiang J.J., Meyers K., Zhang X., Walsh C., Yankner B.A., Raychaudhuri S., Hirschhorn J.N., Gusella J., Talkowski M., Church G.