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I joined the Taylor lab on May 2010 as a postdoc with the curiosity of how focal adhesion kinase may regulate myocardial remodeling. Previously I worked on stem cell therapy for myocardial infarction in Dr. Deling Kong’s lab in Nankai University, where I got my Ph.D. degree in 2008. After that I dipped further into the mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases under Dr. Mark Sussman’s direction in the beautiful South California city San Diego, where I found that cardiovascular biology is my favorite. As a result, I am working here in Chapel Hill with awesome people to uncover the critical role of focal adhesion kinase in cardiovascular development and pathophysiology.

Selected Publications

1. Cheng Z, Sundberg-Smith LJ, Mangiante LE, Sayers RL, Hakim ZS, Musunuri S, Maguire CT, Majesky MW, Zhou Z, Mack CP, Taylor JM. Focal adhesion kinase regulates smooth muscle cell recruitment to the developing vasculature. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2011 Oct;31(10):2193-2202.

2. Sussman MA, Völkers M, Fischer K, Bailey B, Cottage CT, Din S, Gude N, Avitabile D, Alvarez R, Sundararaman B, Quijada P, Mason M, Konstandin MH, Malhowski A, Cheng Z, Khan M, McGregor M. Myocardial AKT: the omnipresent nexus. Physiol Rev. 2011;91(3):1023-1070.

3. Avitabile D, Bailey B, Cottage CT, Sundararaman B, Joyo A, McGregor M, Gude N, Truffa S, Zarrabi A, Konstandin M, Khan M, Mohsin S, Völkers M, Toko H, Mason M, Cheng Z, Din S, Alvarez R Jr, Fischer K, Sussman MA. Nucleolar stress is an early response to myocardial damage involving nucleolar proteins nucleostemin and nucleophosmin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108(15):6145-6150.

4. Cheng Z, Völkers M, Din S, Avitabile D, Khan M, Gude N, Mohsin S, Bo T, Truffa S, Alvarez R, Mason M, Fischer KM, Konstandin MH, Zhang XK, Brown JH, Sussman MA. Mitochondrial translocation of Nur77 mediates cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Eur Heart J. 2011;32(17):2179-2188.

5. Cheng Z, Ou L, Liu Y, Liu X, Li F, Sun B, Che Y, Kong D, Yu Y, Steinhoff G. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor exacerbates cardiac fibrosis after myocardial infarction in a rat model of permanent occlusion. Cardiovasc Res. 2008;80(3):425-434.

6. Cheng Z, Liu X, Ou L, Zhou X, Liu Y, Jia X, Zhang J, Li Y, Kong D. Mobilization of mesenchymal stem cells by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in rats with acute myocardial infarction. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther. 2008;22(5):363-371.

7. Cheng Z, Ou L, Zhou X, Li F, Jia X, Zhang Y, Liu X, Li Y, Ward CA, Melo LG, Kong D. Targeted migration of mesenchymal stem cells modified with CXCR4 gene to infarcted myocardium improves cardiac performance. Mol Ther. 2008;16(3):571-579.