Jing Zhang, PhD, of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, has been named the new Centennial Professor of Oncology.
This professorship, endowed through the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, recognizes Zhang’s outstanding research contributions and provides support for her ongoing research efforts.
Zhang completed her undergraduate studies at Beijing University, and received her PhD in pharmacology from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. After completing her postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she joined the McArdle faculty in 2007.
A major focus of Zhang’s research centers on the Ras protein family and the roles of these proteins in blood cancers. Ras proteins are signaling GTPases that play key roles in regulating cell growth and differentiation. Mutated forms of the Ras proteins are heavily implicated in driving the genesis and progression of cancers.