Email: leah.zhanglei@szbl.ac.cn
The Lei Zhang lab focuses on utilizing single-cell omics to unravel the pathogenesis and mechanisms of immunotherapies in cancer and other immune-related diseases, aiming to rationalize the selection of current treatment strategies. More specifically, we use combined single-cell analyses from mouse models and patients to delineate the function of treatment-related immune cell subsets, dissect novel mechanisms of immunotherapies, and explore how pre-cancer turns into cancer. Prof. Lei Zhang has systematically depicted the fundamental properties of single immune cells in colorectal cancer and identified specific lymphoid and myeloid subsets related to immunotherapies. She has also co-developed a novel analysis framework to track the dynamic relationships of T cells in human tissues.
Junior Principal Investigator, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory
Tenure-track Assistant Professor (joint appointment), Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School
1. Lei Zhang#; Xin Yu#; Liangtao Zheng#; Yuanyuan Zhang#; Yansen Li; Qiao Fang; Ranran Gao; Boxi Kang; Qiming Zhang; Julie Y. Huang; Hiroyasu Konno; Xinyi Guo; Yingjiang Ye; Songyuan Gao; Shan Wang; Xueda Hu; Xianwen Ren; Zhanlong Shen*; Wenjun Ouyang*; Zemin Zhang*; Lineage tracking reveals dynamic relationships of T cells in colorectal cancer. Nature, 2018, 564(7735): 268-272.
2. Lei Zhang; Zemin Zhang*; Recharacterizing tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes by single-cell RNA sequencing. Cancer Immunology Research, 2019, 7(7): 1040-1046.
3. Lei Zhang#; Ziyi Li#; Katarzyna M. Skrzypczynska#; Qiao Fang; Wei Zhang; Sarah A. O'Brien; Yao He; Lynn Wang; Qiming Zhang; Aeryon Kim; Ranran Gao; Jessica Orf; Tao Wang; Deepali Sawant; Jiajinlong Kang; Dev Bhatt; Daniel Lu; Chi-Ming Li; Aaron S. Rapaport; Kristy Perez; Yingjiang Ye; Shan Wang; Xueda Hu; Xianwen Ren; Wenjun Ouyang; Zhanlong Shen*; Jackson G. Egen*; Zemin Zhang*; Xin Yu*; Single-cell analyses inform mechanisms of myeloid-targeted therapies in colon cancer. Cell, 2020, 181(2): 442-459.
4. Xianwen Ren#; Lei Zhang#; Yuanyuan Zhang; Ziyi Li; Nathan Siemers; Zemin Zhang*; Insights gained from single-cell analysis of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Annual Review of Immunology, 2021, 39: 583-609.
5. Hu Nie#; Peilu Lin; Yu Zhang; Yihong Wan; Jiesheng Li; Chengqian Yin; Lei Zhang*; Single-cell meta-analysis of inflammatory bowel disease with scIBD. Nature Computational Science, 2023, 3: 522–531.
6. Xinyi Guo#,Hu Nie#,Wenwen Zhang#,Jiesheng Li,Jing Ge,Bowen Xie,Wenbo Hu,Yicheng Zhu,Na Zhong,Xinmei Zhang,Xiaohong Zhao, Xiaoshuang Wang,Qinli Sun,Kun Wei, Xiaoyuan Chen,Ling Ni,Ting Zhang,Shichun Lu*,Lei Zhang*,Chen Dong*;Contrasting cytotoxic and regulatory T cell responses underlying distinct clinical outcomes to anti-PD-1 plus lenvatinib therapy in cancer. Cancer Cell, 2025, 43, 2: 248-268.