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发帖数: 1047 | 1 http://gwtoday.gwu.edu/learningresearch/significantscience
highlight: "Mr. Zang’s research in biophysics and computational biology has
been published in nine publications, including Cell, Science, and Nature
Genetics, and he received the Best Poster Award in the 7th Asia-Pacific
Bioinformatics Conference."
Significant Science
GW Ph.D. candidate wins $4,000 award for his dissertation research.
Nov. 11, 2010
A George Washington University Ph.D. candidate has received a prestigious
science award for his research in computational biophysics.
Chongzhi Zang was awarded a $4,000 Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Prize.
The science awards are given to doctoral students under the age of 30 with a
3.5 or higher grade-point average doing dissertation research in
engineering, computer science, medicine and the natural sciences. The awards
aim to reward exceptional research performance and to encourage significant
future contributions to science.
While at GW, Mr. Zang has researched epigenomes – factors that help
regulate a body’s DNA. Mr. Zang specifically examined how chromatin (a
tangle of DNA and proteins that make up chromosomes) affect the expression
of genes, a mechanism that also plays an important part in diseases like
cancer.
“The epigenome is one of the critical ingredients underlying the
differences in different cell types, and a number of diseases have been
found to have a direct link with the defects in the epigenomes”, says
Weiqun Peng, an associate professor of physics in the Columbian College of
Arts and Science and Mr. Zang’s dissertation adviser. “Fueled by advances
in next generation sequencing technology, epigenomics has become one of the
most active areas in biomedical research. Computational analysis, like what
Mr. Zang and other members in my group have been doing is indispensable and
a lot of fun.”
Dr. Peng says Mr. Zang’s research might be able to help create drugs to
attack diseases like cancer.
“Chongzhi’s research not only deepens our understanding of the fundamental
principles of gene regulation but also broadens the horizon in our search
for biomarker and therapeutic targets for human diseases,” he says.
Mr. Zang grew up in China and completed his undergraduate education in
physics at Peking University in Beijing. He decided to attend graduate
school in the U.S. and chose GW because of its “great reputation.”
“We have a relatively small department here at GW, and we’re all kind of
like a family,” said Mr. Zang, who is continuing his research now in a post
-doctoral position at Harvard University. Mr. Zang expects to graduate from
GW in December.
In addition to Mr. Zang’s dissertation, six other dissertations in areas
like biology, electrical engineering, chemistry and molecular medicine were
submitted as nominees for the Chorafas Foundation Prize.
“His work has already appeared in a number of significant scientific
journals, and he holds great promise to make future transformative
contributions to science and technology,” says Dianne Martin, GW’s
associate vice president for graduate studies and academic affairs.
Mr. Zang’s research in biophysics and computational biology has been
published in nine publications, including Cell, Science, and Nature Genetics
, and he received the Best Poster Award in the 7th Asia-Pacific
Bioinformatics Conference.
“Chongzhi is one of the best graduate students our department has seen in
terms of academic performance,” says Dr. Peng. | m***T
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