Xiaochang Zhang (张晓昌), PhD, Principle Investigator, email: xczhang AT uchicago.edu

Xiaochang Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, and a member of the Neuroscience Institute. His group focuses on neocortex development and seeks to understand how brain cell types are specified over time and changed under neurological conditions. He received a Ph.D. from Fudan University Shanghai in 2009, where he studied SUN-KASH nuclear envelope proteins in brain and neuromuscular development under the guidance of Prof. Min Han. He continued to work with Prof. Han at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he uncovered critical roles of microRNAs in stress responses. As a postdoctoral fellow, he worked with Prof. Christopher A. Walsh at Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital (2011-2017), where he studied alternative RNA splicing in cortical neurogenesis and genetics of structural brain malformations. He is a recipient of the NIH Career Development Award (K01), the SFARI Pilot Award, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2).