Jian-Ting Zhang, Ph.D.: Principal Investigator
Dr. Zhang obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1989. His graduate work, performed in the lab of Dr. Bruce J. Nicholson, focused on cloning the gene of a gap junction protein connexin 26 and investigated its expression profile. During his 4-year postdoctoral training with Dr. Victor Ling at Ontario Cancer Institute at University of Toronto, Canada, he studied multidrug resistance and found that nascent P-glycoprotein may have different membrane topological foldings from mature ones. From 1993, Dr. Zhang continued to study multidrug resistance in cancer chemotherapy and expanded into drug discovery and chemical biology. Since then, he served as faculty mentor in multiple universities and now as the chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences.
Zizheng Dong, Ph.D.: Research Associate Professor
Dr. Dong received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, China. He joined the Zhang lab in 1994 as postdoctoral fellow and later became research associate professor in Indiana University School of Medicine and then University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences. His research interest focuses on translational regulation of gene expression in tumorigenesis. He is currently investigating the role and mechanism of action of eIF3a in regulating mRNA translation, cell growth and tumorigenesis.
Qingbin (Tim) Cui, Ph.D.: Postdoctoral Fellow
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Dr. Cui received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from Jinan University College of Pharmacy (Guangzhou, China) in 2014. Dr. Cui worked as an assistant research scientist at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from 2014 to 2017, and then he joined Dr. Zhe-Sheng Chen’s lab at St. John’s University as a post-doctoral till 09/2019 when he joined Dr. Zhang’s lab at University of Toledo. Dr. Cui’s research interests fall in two areas, 1) Medicinal Chemistry, design and synthesis of new chemical entities; and 2) Pharmacology and mechanism study.
Sophia Josephraj, Ph.D.: Postdoctoral Fellow
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Dr. Sophia J received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Annamalai University (Tamil Nadu, India) in 2019. Dr. Sophia J joined Dr. Zhang’s lab at The University of Toledo as a postdoctoral fellow on December, 2019. Dr. Sophia J’s research interest focuses on molecular mechanism of fatty acid synthase in drug resistance.
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Xunzhen (Sean) Zheng, M.D.: Postdoctoral Fellow
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Dr. Zheng received his M.D. in Clinical Medicine from Xiangya Medical College (Changsha, China) in 1997. Dr. Zheng worked as a postdoctoral at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Dr. Charles Esmon’s lab from 2001 to study sepsis and blood clotting. In 2017 he began to work in Dr. Soari Furuta’s lab at the University of Toledo Health Center to study nitric oxide and breast cancer until 2022. Then he joined Dr. Zhang’s lab to study survivin protein and the associated drug resistance.
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![IMG_3803[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/15f90e_30da92d0dd0f40d29895f864f6c11bb6~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_166,h_179,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/IMG_3803%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
Junmei Wang, M.D. Ph. D.: Research Associate
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Dr. Wang obtained her Ph.D. in Anatomy and Histology from Sun Yat-set University in China. Her postdoctoral training was in the Indiana University school of medicine from 2015 to 2022. Then worked in Acerand Therapeutics company as a scientist until 2024, focus on research and development in small molecule cancer drug discovery. She joined Dr. Zhang's lab at University of Toledo to be a research associate in May 2025. Currently Dr. Wang is studying: (1) Molecular mechanism of fatty acid synthase in drug resistance for brain metastases derived from breast cancer in order to find a potential drug; (2) Therapeutic targeting of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade by small-molecule inhibitors.
Miles Fearn: Graduate Student (M.D. Candidate)
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Miles received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Miami University. As an undergraduate, he gained research experience studying MC1R expression, functionality, and oxidative stress responses in melanoma cells with Dr. Zalfa Abdel-Malek at the University of Cincinnati. He also worked with Dr. Carlos Ferrario at Wake Forest University investigating how immunoneutralization of angiotensin II substrates could help lower blood pressure. Miles joined Dr. Zhang’s lab in 2025, where he is exploring potential collateral sensitivity targets in gemcitabine-resistant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells.
Rahul Verma, B.S. M.S.: Graduate Student (Ph.D Candidate)
Rahul achieved his master's degree in biomedical science from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Biomedical Science, Delhi University, India. Under the supervision of Dr. Prafulla Kumar B. Tailor, he designed and characterized an intra-molecular FRET-based construct to analyze protein conformational changes. After his master's, Rahul worked as a research assistant at the CSIR-institute of Genomics and Integrated Biology under the supervision of Dr. Binukumar BK, where he focused on exploring the role of CDK16 in neurodegenerative disease and Type 2 Diabetic Mellitus using C57BL/6 mice models. Rahul joined Dr. JT Zhang's lab in August 2023 and is interested in the functional mechanism by which eIF3a regulates specific processes in cancer metabolism.
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