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.

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.

1. 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.

2. 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. 

3. 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. 

4. 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.

5. Ma Y, Zhang A*, Lin J, Ding F, Wang X, Wang W, Jian G, Zhang J, Zhu P, Ma Y, Lv J, Zheng H, Li J, Wu T, Zeng J, Jiang Y, Xu Y, Lyu X, Wang Y, Li Y, Liu N, Zheng ZQ, Niu YS, Guo Z, Fang N, Jiang W, Wang L, Chen J, Yuan M, Huang Q, Li J, Lu J, Chen B, Huang T, He T, Zhong G, Li R, Liu H, Weng S. Checkpoint blockade-related CNS adverse events are characterized by neurotoxic T helper cells with sustained neuroantigen reactivity. Cell Rep Med. 2026 Apr 21;7(4):102700. 

6. Chen XC, Fu JC, Zhang A*, Liu YT, Xing S, Wang F, Zhang XY, Kong XW, Li Y. Whole-Exome Profiling of Epstein-Barr Virus-Positive Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Nasopharynx. Endocr Pathol. 2026 Jan 24;37(1):6. 

7. Ma Y, Liu N, Li Y, Zhang D, He S, Lv J, Jiang Y, Jian G, Zhang J, Zhu P, Ma Y, Lin J, Li J, Wu T, Xu Y, Lyu X, Wang Y, Li Y, Niu YS, Guo Z, Lin C, Fang N, Jiang W, Wang L, Yuan M, Wang S, Huang S, Huang Q, Li J, Lu J, Chen B, Zhong G, Liu H, Ding F, Weng S, Li R, Zhang A#. IL-6 receptor blockade impedes proinflammatory atypical Treg subset associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced inflammatory arthritis. J Clin Invest. 2026 May 12:e200135.