Xiaochang Zhang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago

SFARI Investigator Website

Xiaochang Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, and a member of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior. His group focuses on neocortical development 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 pre-mRNA splicing in cortical neurogenesis and genetic mutations associated with structural brain malformations.

Funded Projects

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

Awarded: 2020
Award Type: Pilot

SFARI Funded Publications

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.