ZUO-FENG ZHANG

Dr. Zhang is Professor of Epidemiology, and Director of UCLA-USC Molecular Epidemiology Training Program at University of California, Los Angeles. As a cancer molecular epidemiologist, Dr. Zhang has studied gene-environment interactions on the risk of a variety of cancers, especially cigarette smoking and TP53 gene mutations on the risk of bladder cancer, marijuana smoking and mutagen sensitivity on the risk of head and neck cancer, green tea drinking and H. Pylori infection on the risk of stomach cancer, tobacco smoking and phases I and II as well as DNA repair genes on the risk of lung cancer, alcohol drinking and susceptibility genes on the risk of esophageal cancer.

Dr. Zhang's research interests focus on molecular genetic epidemiology of cancers of the lung, bladder, prostate, esophagus, stomach, liver, head and neck cancer, cervix, and AIDS-related malignancies. His research team is working on mutations, methylations, and polymorphisms of tumor suppresser genes such as TP53 and p16, of phases I and II genes, such as GSTs, NATs, and CYP450s, and of DNA repair genes such as XRCC1. His major focus of this research is to evaluate the main effects of these genes on the risk of cancer and to assess potential gene-environment interactions. Dr. Zhang is also interested in nutrition and cancer, epidemiology of second primary cancers, methodological issues in the use of tumor markers in cancer epidemiology, and the application of tumor markers in progression and survival of cancer. He is the author of 114 articles published in national and international scientific journals.

Dr. Zhang has participated as a member of numerous NIH peer review study sections. He has been a member of ACE since 1990 and a fellow since 1999 and he is a member of the Publication Committee and was a member of the Education Committee.