Education
2002-2006, B.S. in Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
2006-2012, Ph.D. in Cell, Stem Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusSciences
Academic Experience
2012-2015, Postdoctoral fellow, Dept. of Genetics, Harvard Medical School1997-1998
2015-2018, Senior Scientist, Group Lead of HDR in HSC, CRISPR Therapeutics Inc.
2018- Professor, Medical Research Institute, Wuhan University, China
2019- PI, Frontier Science Center for Immunology and Metabolism, Wuhan University
2023- PI, Taikang Center for Life and Medical Sciences, Wuhan University
Social Service
Associate Editor, Cell Insight (2021-)
Research Overview
Our ultimate goal is to translate CRISPR technologies into cell therapy by either directly restoring pathogenic mutations within cells or by manipulating immune cell to enhance its anti-tumor ability for cancer treatment. We aim to build and engineer a complete suite of toolbox for cellular genome manipulation that can be safely delivered into primary cells for precision medicine.
Area of interest:
1. CRISPR/Cas9 toolbox discovery and engineering;
2. Non-viral delivery of macromolecules for cell therapy
3. CRISPR/Cas9 mediated cell therapy including immunotherapies and genetic disorders;
Representative Publications
1. M Duan#, P Gao#, YZ Zhang#, YL Hu, L Zhou, ZC Xu, HY Qiu, XH Tong, RJ Ji, XL Lei, H Yin, CL Guo, Y Zhang*. TOPO-seq reveals DNA topology-induced off-target activity by Cas9 and base editors. Nature Chemical Biology, 2025 Apr 2, Epub ahead of print.
2. RJ Ji #, MY Wang #, Y Zhang*. Precision epitope editing: A Path to Advanced Immunotherapies. Cell Insight, (2024) Dec 24;4(2):100226.
3. RJ Ji#, GH Cao#, WQ Zhao, MY Wang, P Gao, YZ Zhang, XB Wang, HY Qiu, DD Chen, XH Tong, M Duan, H Yin, Y Zhang*. Epitope prime editing shields hematopoietic cells from CD123 immunotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia. Cell Stem Cell, 2024 Nov 7;31(11):1650-1666.e8.
4. WY Han#, HY Qiu#, S Sun#, ZC Fu#, GQ Wang#, X Qian, L Wang, X Zhai, J Wei, Y Wang, YL Guo, GH Cao, RJ Ji, YZ Zhang, H Ma, H Wang, M Zhao, J Wu, LL Bi, QB Chen, Z Li, L Yu, X Mou, H Yin, L Yang *, J Chen *, B Yang *, Y Zhang *. Base editing of the HBG promoter induces potent fetal hemoglobin expression with no detectable offtarget mutations in human HSCs. Cell Stem Cell, 2023 Dec 7;30(12):1624-1639.e8.
5. J An#, CP Zhang#, HY Qiu#, HX Zhang#, QB Chen, YM Zhang, XL Lei, CX Zhang, H Yin*, Y Zhang*. Enhancement of the viability of T cells electroporated with DNA via osmotic dampening of the DNA-sensing cGAS-STING pathway. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2024 Feb;8(2):149-164.
6. CP Zhang, HY Qiu, CX Zhang, YM Zhang, YZ Zhang, H Yin, KQ Zhang*, Y Zhang*. Efficient non-viral delivery of macromolecules in human primary hematopoietic stem cells and lymphocytes. Journal of Molecular and Cell Biology, 2023 Aug 3;15(3):mjad018.
7. HX Zhang#, CX Zhang#, SH Lu, XH Tong, K Zhang, H Yin*, Y Zhang*. Cas12a-based one-pot SNP detection with high accuracy. Cell Insight, (2023): 100080.
8. HY Qiu, RJ Ji, Y Zhang*. Current advances of CRISPR-Cas technology in cell therapy. Cell Insight, (2022): 100067
9. YJ Shi#, M Duan#, JM Ding#, FQ Wang, LL Bi, CX Zhang, YZ Zhang, JY Duan, AH Huang, XL Lei, H Yin, Y Zhang*. DNA topology regulates PAM-Cas9 interaction and DNA unwinding to enable near PAMless cleavage by thermophilic Cas9. Molecular Cell, 2022 Nov 3;82(21):4160-4175
10. SH Lu#, XH Tong#, Y Han#, K Zhang, YZ Zhang, QB Chen, JY Duan, XL Lei, MH Huang, Y Qiu, DY Zhang, X Zhou, Y Zhang* and Hao Yin*. Fast and sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using suboptimal protospacer adjacent motifs for Cas12a. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2022 Mar;6(3):286-297
