Lei Zhang

The goal of our research is to understand how somatic mutations arise and contribute to aging and age-related diseases. Somatic mutations are increasingly recognized as both a hallmark and potential driver of aging, yet many long-standing questions remain. We investigate the patterns and consequences of somatic mutations across multiple tissues and diverse species with different lifespans. Our work aims to uncover how these mutations impact cellular function and tissue homeostasis over time. By connecting genome instability to functional decline, we hope to identify mechanisms that influence healthy aging and disease vulnerability. We are also committed to training the next generation of scientists through hands-on research, critical thinking, and collaborative discovery.

The general interest of the Zhang Laboratory focuses on the genome and epigenome instability in aging and longevity. More specifically, we study somatic DNA mutations and epi-mutations and their effects on cellular functional decline in normal aging process or age-related diseases. We have been developing experimental approaches of single-cell multi-omics and applying them to discover interactions of genome, transcriptome, and epigenome in individual cells from different tissues of humans during aging or species with different maximum life spans.

Dr. Zhang obtained her PhD in microbiology in the Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014. She completed postdoc training in the Department of Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2021. After that, she joined the Xiao Dong laboratory as a Research Assistant Professor. Since 2023, she started the Lei Zhang laboratory in the Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism (iBAM) and the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics (BMBB) at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.