Biography & Research:
Zhentao Zhang is a professor who works in the Department of Neurology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. He obtained his doctor’s degres from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2010 and received a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Medical College of Emory University. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on proteins that form pathological inclusions in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. His work demonstrated that the fragmentation and other post-translational modification of Tau and alpha-synuclein promote the aggregation and propagation of these pathologic proteins, leading to neurodegeneration. Furthermore, his group demonstrated that endogenous and exogenous seeds trigger the aggregation of Tau and alpha-synuclein. He is also interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic dysfunction and neuronal injury in neurodegenerative diseases. He has authored or co-authored over 80 professional publications in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.