Wencheng Zhang

I am currently a research associate professor at Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University (Shanghai, China). I went to the Northwest A&F University (Yangling, China) for my undergraduate studies with a major in bioscience from 2003 to 2007. I received my PhD in regenerative medicine from the Academy of Military Medicine Science (Beijing, China) in 2012. I then went to the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC (USA) for postdoctoral training and was mentored there by Prof. Lola M. Reid. My initial efforts were on projects characterizing determined endodermal stem cells in a network of niches found throughout the biliary trees of all mammals. I helped to demonstrate that these are able to give rise to liver or to pancreas depending on where they are transplanted in vivo or the conditions under which they are cultured ex vivo. These investigations were followed by programs on grafting strategies by which to transplant organoids of endodermal stem/progenitors into solid organs, investigations that I spearheaded and for which I became the lead inventor for the technologies, referred to as patch grafting strategies, by which to transplant organoids of stem/progenitors into solid organs. In my last 2 years at UNC, I worked on parallel projects as a research associate in both Prof. Reid`s and Prof. Jian Liu`s labs, respectively, investigating the biological effects on stem/progenitors of sulfated glycosaminoglycans, heparan sulfate (HS) and chondroitin sulfates (CS). I have 30 publications in major journals, including in the journal Cell Stem Cell and Biomaterials, and I am an inventor on 11 major patents including being a lead inventor on patents on patch grafting strategies. Each of the U.S. patents has been filed internationally in 10-30 countries. My current research is focusing on exploring biological functions of HS/CS glycosaminoglycans in expanding and cell fate determination of endodermal stem cells, and developing therapeutic strategies for fibrolamellar carcinoma.