The Zhang Laboratory
Kang Zhang is an internationally known genetic researcher and clinician, whose life goal is to find a cure for macular degeneration. Dr. Zhang, a U.S. citizen originally from China, joined the staff of the Moran Eye Center in 2002 from the Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute. He received his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard in 1991 and his M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1995. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute in 1999. His laboratory at the Moran Eye Center is arguably the premier retinal disease gene screening group in the world.
Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on the use of molecular genetic techniques to identify genes that predispose a patient to age-related macular degeneration, and on developing drug therapies to prevent the disease. His goal is to identify patients who are most likely to develop the disease, and lower their risk, long before it becomes debilitating. The laboratory’s research takes two approaches to uncover key genes and pathways in retinal degeneration. First, they use molecular tools to map and identify genes for important juvenile retinal dystrophies, including Stargardt disease, dominant familial drusen, retinitis pigmentosa, familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, pattern dystrophy, cone-rod dystrophy, Leber’s congenital amourosis, optic atrophy and glaucoma. Second, they search for genes for age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, two leading causes of blindness in the world. By exploiting the tremendous genetic resources of the University of Utah, particularly the Mormon genealogy records and Utah Population Databases of 1.6 million in size derived from 5500 founders, they are conducting genome-scans and association studies in large families.
Education: M.D., Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Academic Appointments: Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences—University of Utah School of Medicine; Adjunct Professor of Neurobiology & Anatomy; Director, Division of Ophthalmic Genetics; Co-director, Division of International Ophthalmology; Investigator, Program in Human Molecular Biology & Genetics; Eccles Institute of Human Genetics
Fundus images of A, normal macula; B, macula with confluent soft drusen (black arrows); C, macula of dry AMD with geographic atrophy (white arrows) and soft drusen (black arrows); D, macula of wet AMD with a choroidal neovascular membrane (black arrow heads) and associated subretinal hemorrhage (white arrow). Photographs were provided by Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., and James Gilman, CRA.
Patient Care Significance
There has been an explosion in the discovery of genes associated with retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration and other eye diseases. Work in the Zhang Laboratory has been on the forefront of many of these. The design of medical and drug therapies to attenuate these complex diseases will require deep knowledge of how gene defects lead to cellular failure, so the analysis of genetic mechanisms of cell killing has been a major adjunct to screening for the genes themselves. The Zhang Laboratory stresses finding ways to predict and treat these diseases as early as possible, which is of the highest priority for the Moran Eye Center.
A sample of major publications from the Zhang Laboratory
Magnusson K. P.*, Duan S., Sigurdsson H., Petursson H., Yang Z., Zhao Y., Bernstein P. S., Ge J., Jonasson F., Stefansson K., Helgadottin G., Zabriskie N. A., Jonsson T., Bjornsson A., Thorlacius T., Jonsson P. V., Thorleifsson G., Kong A., Stefansson H., Zhang K.*, Stefansson K., and Gulcher J. R.* (2006) CFH Y402H confers similar risk of soft drusen and both forms of advanced AMD. PLoS Med. 3:109-113. * co-corresponding authors
Karan G., Lillo C., Yang Z., Cameron D. J., Locke K. G., Zhao Y., Thirumalaichary S., Li C., Birch D. G., Volmer-Snarr H., Williams D. S., and Zhang K. (2005) Lipofuscin accumulation, abnormal electrophysiology, and photoreceptor degeneration in mutant ELOVL4 transgenic mice: a model for macular degeneration. PNAS, 102:4164.
Yang Z., Alvarez B. Z., Chakarova C., Jiang L., Karan G., Frederick J. M., Yu Zhao Y., Sauve Y., Li X., Zrenner E., Wissinger B., Den Hollander D. I., Katz B., Baehr W., Cremers F. P., Casey J. R., Bhattacharya S.S., and Zhang K. (2005) Mutant CA4 impairs pH regulation and causes retinal photoreceptor degeneration. Human Molecular Genetics, 14:255 [Epub ahead of print Nov. 24, 2004].
Xu Q., Wang Y., Dabdoub A., Smallwood P. M., Williams J., Woods C., Kelley M. W., Jiang L., Tasman W., Zhang K., and Nathans J. (2004) Vascular development in the retina and inner ear: control by Norrin and Frizzled-4, a high-affinity ligand-receptor pair. Cell, 116:883
Zhang K., Kniazeva M., Han M., Li W., Yu Z., Yang Z., Li Y., Metzker M. L., Allikmets R. L., Zack D. J., Kakuk L. E., Lagali P. S., Wong P. W., MacDonald I. M., Sieving P. A., Figueroa D., Austin C. P., Gould R. J., Ayyagari R., Petrukhin K. (2001) A five base-pair deletion in the ELOVL4 gene is associated with two related forms of autosomal dominant macular dystrophy. Nature Genetics, 27:89.