Serving as the Head of the Physician Group, is also an Assistant Researcher and Graduate Supervisor. As a visiting scholar at the Texas Medical Center in the United States, Dr. Zhang’s primary research focuses on oncogenic viruses (particularly EBV) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, innate immunity, and prognostic studies in immunotherapy for head and neck malignancies. Dr. Zhang has authored or co-authored dozens of SCI-indexed papers as first or corresponding author in prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, EMBO Reports, and eClinicalMedicine. Recognized for academic excellence, Dr. Zhang was selected for the Postdoctoral Innovative Talent Support Program and has secured several competitive grants, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Program and a Postdoctoral General Research Fund.

Prognostic Biomarkers for Immunotherapy, Tumor Immune Regulatory Mechanisms

Earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Oncology from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, following a Bachelor of Medicine (B.Med.) in Medical Laboratory Science from Sun Yat-sen University.

Zhang A*, Xing J*, Xia T*, Zhang H, Fang M, Li S, Du Y, Li XC, Zhang Z, Zeng MS. EphA2 phosphorylates NLRP3 and inhibits inflammasomes in airway epithelial cells. EMBO Rep. 2020 Jul 3;21(7):e49666.

Xing J*,Zhang A*, Zhang H, Wang J, Li XC, Zeng MS, Zhang Z. TRIM29 promotes DNA virus infections by inhibiting innate immune response. Nat Commun. 2017 Oct 16;8(1):945.

Ma Y, Liu N, Wang Y, Zhang A, Zhu Z,Zhang Z#, Li Y, Jian G, Fu G, Dong M, Zheng G, Zhu P, Zhong G, Bai S, Chen S, Wei X, Tan J, Wang X#. Cognitive adverse events in patients with lung cancer treated with checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy: a propensity score-matched analysis. EClinicalMedicine. 2023 Apr 27;59:101987.

Ma Y, Zeng J, Ding F, Xu Y, Wang Y, Zhong G, Liu N, Wang Y, Li Y, Chen S, Wei X, Zhu P, Jian G, Niu YS, Fu G, Liu C, Li G, Zhou X,Zhang A#, Weng S#. Cerebral 18F-FDG PET/CT Metabolism as Diagnostic Signature for Central Nervous System Toxicity After Immune Checkpoint Blockade Cancer Treatment. J Nucl Med. 2024 Jul 1;65(7):1129-1136.

Wu X, Han R, Zhong Y, Weng N#,Zhang A#. Post treatment NLR is a predictor of response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer Cell Int. 2021 Jul 7;21(1):356.