Center for Biomarker
Discovery & Translation
Lab Members
Hui Zhang, Ph.D., Director of Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, Professor
Dr. Zhang graduated with her Ph.D degree under the mentorship of Dr. Roland Kallen from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 and joined the Cell Signaling Group with Dr. Michael Comb in New England Biolabs as a Product Manager and moved to Cell Signal Technology as Scientist and was promoted to Senior Scientist in 2001. After working with Dr. Ruedi Aebersold at The Institute for Systems Biology for five years, she joined Johns Hopkins University as an Assistant Professor of Pathology in 2006 and was promoted to an Associate Professor of Pathology at Johns Hopkins University in 2011. She established the Mass Spectrometry Core Facility of the Center for Biomarker Discovery and Translation and serves as a Director. Her research focus is on developing high-throughput technologies to characterize dynamic protein expressions/modifications and using these proteomic technologies to understand human diseases. Dr. Zhang participates in several research programs and serves as an investigator in the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), NIHBI Proteomics Center, and Programs of Excellence in Glycosciences (PEG).
Yingwei Hu, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Hu received received M.Sc. degree in Information Technology in 2009, M.Phil and Ph.D. degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2011 and 2015 from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests include bioinformatics, proteomics, mass spectrometry, high-performance computational and systems biology.
David J. Clark, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Clark obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Chemistry from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2003. Prior to his graduate studies, he was employed at The J. Craig Venter Institute (formerly The Institute of Genomic Research) in the lab of Dr. Rembert Pieper, utilizing proteomic-based mass spectrometry to identify differential protein profiles of microorganisms. In 2015, Dr. Clark obtained his Ph.D degree in Molecular Medicine from the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, where his graduate work focused on elucidating exosome and glycoproteins markers that could be used to distinguish molecular subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma under the mentorship of Dr. Li Mao and Dr. Austin Yang. Currently, Dr. Clark works as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Dr. Hui Zhang in the Department of Pathology at The Johns Hopkins University, where his work includes the development of automated sample preparation methodologies, as well as examining the impact of glycosylation on the exosome proteome in prostate cancer. In addition, Dr. Clark is involved in several NCI proteomic initiatives, including the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) and the Clinical Proteomics Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), where he serves as project leader for the JHU Proteome Characterization Center team.
Shiyong (Felix) Ma, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Ma obtained his PhD degree in Bioinformatics from University of New South Wales in Sydney in 2016. He was also conferred M.Eng and B.Eng in Information System by Xidian University in 2009 and 2012 respectively. His research interests include bioinformatics, computational proteomics and mass spectrometry, studying and applying machine learning for healthcare and biomarker discovery.
Ganglong Yang, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Yang earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Northwest University of China in 2013. Then he got a faculty position at Jiangnan University of China. In 2017, Dr. Yang joined the Center for Biomarker Discovery and Translation as a post-doctoral fellow. Now his work focused on the intact glycopeptide analysis.
Chuanzi Ouyang, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. OuYang obtained her Ph.D. degree in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 under the mentorship of Dr. Lingjun Li. Upon the completion of her doctoral studies, she joined Dr. Hui Zhang’s lab as a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. OuYang is developing quantitative mass spectrometric imaging approaches to simultaneously characterize the localization and quantity of N-linked and O-linked glycans on the tissue surface. She is also focusing on the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) project to develop SRM assays for the discovery of biomarkers in prostate cancer.
KyungCho (Ryan) Cho, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Cho received his Ph.D in Analytical chemistry from KyungHee University from Korea (south) in 2016. Then he worked at Seoul National University Hospital as post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Cho joined Hui’s Zhang’s lab from 2017 year as post-doctoral fellow. He is now involving in National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) project and he now focusses the development of O-GlcNAc analysis
Sean Ponce, Ph.D. Student
Sean earned his B.A. in Physics and B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2011. There he performed research in Dr. Scott Shell's lab investigating the energetic landscapes of protein folding and subsequently in Dr. Daniel Morse's lab working on adaptive optical biomaterials. Following graduation, he joined Baxter Bioscience as a Bioprocess Engineer and Coherus Biosciences as an Analytical Chemist in 2012. In 2015, he began graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, earning his M.S. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering under Dr. Michael Betenbaugh while investigating glycoengineering. Currently, Sean is working towards his Ph.D. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Hui Zhang studying phenotypic markers of disease states using mass spectrometry-based approaches. His research interests include protein chemistry, glycomics, mass spectrometry, optical detection methods and cellular engineering.