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Research Overview

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are one of the most promising gene therapy vectors and are widely used as gene delivery vehicles for both basic and clinical research. High quality AAVs can efficiently target and deliver genes to distinctly different population of cells and tissues.

Yiming Zhang is responsible for producing and quality control of AAV vectors made at the Boston Children’s Hospital Viral Core. To facilitate investigators’ research with high-grade AAV vectors, Yiming puts effort into optimizing the manufacturing platform to boost yield, maximize efficiency, and increase purity of AAV preparations.

Selected Publications

  1. 1. Liu Y, Latremoliere A, Li X, Zhang Z, Chen M, Wang X, Fang C, Zhu J, Alexandre C, Gao Z, Chen B, Ding X, Zhou JY, Zhang Y, Chen C, Wang KH, Woolf CJ, He Z. Touch and tactile neuropathic pain sensitivity are set by corticospinal projections. Nature. 2018 09; 561(7724):547-550.
  2. Chen B, Li Y, Yu B, Zhang Z, Brommer B, Williams PR, Liu Y, Hegarty SV, Zhou S, Zhu J, Guo H, Lu Y, Zhang Y, Gu X, He Z. Reactivation of Dormant Relay Pathways in Injured Spinal Cord by KCC2 Manipulations. Cell. 2018 07 26; 174(3):521-535.e13.
  3. Wang X, Liu Y, Li X, Zhang Z, Yang H, Zhang Y, Williams PR, Alwahab NSA, Kapur K, Yu B, Zhang Y, Chen M, Ding H, Gerfen CR, Wang KH, He Z. Deconstruction of Corticospinal Circuits for Goal-Directed Motor Skills. Cell. 2017 Oct 05; 171(2):440-455.e14.
  4. Liu Y, Wang X, Li W, Zhang Q, Li Y, Zhang Z, Zhu J, Chen B, Williams PR, Zhang Y, Yu B, Gu X, He Z. 2017 A Sensitized IGF1 Treatment Restores Corticospinal Axon-Dependent Functions. Neuron. 95(4):817-833.e4.
  5. Norsworthy MW, Bei F, Kawaguchi R, Wang Q, Tran NM, Li Y, Brommer B, Zhang Y, Wang C, Sanes JR, Coppola G, He Z. 2017 Sox11 Expression Promotes Regeneration of Some Retinal Ganglion Cell Types but Kills Others. Neuron. 94(6):1112-1120.e4.
  6. Zhang Y, Mikhaylova L, Kobzik L & Fedulov AV. 2015 Estrogen-mediated impairment of macrophageal uptake of environmental TiO2 particles to explain inflammatory effect of TiO2 on airways during pregnancy, Journal of Immunotoxicology, 12:1, 81-91, DOI: 10.3109/1547691X.2014.899411
  7. Gregory DJ, Zhang Y, Kobzik L, Fedulov AV. 2013 Specific transcriptional enhancement of inducible nitric oxide synthase by targeted promoter demethylation. Epigenetics 8(11):1205-12. doi: 10.4161/epi.26267.
  8. Mikhaylova L, Zhang Y, Kobzik L, Fedulov AV. 2013 Link between Epigenomic Alterations and Genome-Wide Aberrant Transcriptional Response to Allergen in Dendritic Cells Conveying Maternal Asthma Risk. PLoS ONE 8(8): e70387. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070387
  9. Zhang YM, Geng L, Huang DW. 2009. Generate western blot protein marker from a single construct. Anal Biochem. 390: 206-208.
  10. Xin W, Huang DW, Zhang YM, Geng L. 2004. DNA mutagenesis using T4 DNA polymerase and Dpn I restriction endonuclease. Anal Biochem. 329: 151-153.