Email

chenghang.zong@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor

Molecular and Human Genetics
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

McNair Scholar

Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Member

Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Faculty Member

Genetics & Genomics Graduate Program
Baylor College of Medicine

Faculty Member

Graduate Program in Cancer & Cell Biology
Baylor College of Medicine

Education

BA from University of Science and Technology of China

01/2000 - Hefei, Anhui China

Physical Chemistry

PhD from University of California

01/2007 - San Diego, California United States

Chemistry

Post-Doctoral Fellowship at University of Illinois

01/2009 - Urbana-Champaign, Illinois United States

Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Harvard University

01/2013 - Cambridge, Massachusetts United States

Professional Interests

• Single-cell whole genome sequencing, single-cell RNA-seq, single-cell ATAC-seq, single cell DNA damagenome, tumorigenesis.

Professional Statement

The research of our laboratory focuses on the development of novel single-cell technologies and their applications in biology studies. With the rapid development of next-generation sequencing technology, high-throughput sequencing has become a powerful tool for biological research. In our lab, we are interested in examining the genome at single-cell resolution, in contrast to the genome averaged from an ensemble of cells. As a demonstration of the principle, we can detect somatic mutations existing in individual cancer cells. We are particularly interested in detecting early mutations that drive tumorigenesis and the early stage of tumor heterogeneity that will influence later tumor development. The lab specifically focuses on pancreatic cancer. Supported by the NIH’s New Innovator’s award, we have successfully developed a linear amplification-based whole-genome amplification method (LCS-WGA), which allows us to profile not only the somatic mutations existing in single cells but also the spontaneous DNA damage in single cells for the first time, which we refer to as damagenome. The successful profiling of DNA damagenome promoted us to identify the high-damage genes existing in the human genome and unveil their association with complex human diseases.

In addition to profiling the genome at single-cell resolution, we are also interested in developing novel methods for single-cell transcriptional and epigenetic profiling. Our goal is to unveil the transcriptome and epigenome changes in various biological processes such as tumorigenesis, aging and neurodegeneration. We have developed the first single-cell total-RNA-seq method (MATQ-seq) and the droplet-based high throughput platform of this chemistry: MATQ-drop. These methods have been applied to characterize the early lesions of pancreatic cancer using the mice model, the heterogeneity in tumor and its microenvironment and various biological processes through collaborations.

Websites

Selected Publications

• Liu S, Cao W, Niu Y, Luo J, Zhao Y, Hu Z, Zong CC "Single-PanIN-seq unveils that ARID1A deficiency promotes pancreatic tumorigenesis by attenuating KRAS-induced senescence.." eLife. 2021 10 : e64264.
• Zhu Q, Niu Y, Zong CC "Single-cell damagenome profiling unveils vulnerable genes and functional pathways in human genome toward DNA damage." Sci. Adv.. 2021 7 : eabf3329.
• Bota-Rabassedas N, et al. "Contextual cues from cancer cells govern cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity.." Cell Rep.. 2021 35 : 109009.
• "Effective detection of variation in single-cell transcriptomes using MATQ-seq." Nature Methods. 2017 January ; 14 : 267-270.

Funding

New Innovator Award

NIH Director's program