2021-present, Principal Investigator, Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking University
2021-present, Principal Investigator, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG)
2020-2021, Instructor, Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital
2016-2020, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital
2010-2016, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peking University
2006-2010, B.S. in Biotechnology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

The diversification of B cell-generated antibody is the hallmark of adaptive immunity, which facilitates the elimination of harmful antigens. The antibody diversification is from RAG-mediated V(D)J recombination, activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)-initiated class switch recombination (CSR) and V(D)J exon somatic hypermutation (SHM). While the off-targets of RAG- and AID-mediated recombination or mutation severely affect the genome stability and human health. Our group uses the combination of gene editing and genomics to systematically study the mechanism of antibody maturation and diversification during B cell development, and the roles of dynamic chromatin structure in maintaining genomic stability, which can also contribute to the understanding of immunological deficiency-related diseases and genome instability-related diseases.

2023 Bayer Investigator
2022 Boya Young Fellow
2020 Harvard Chinese Life Science Annual Distinguished Research Award

 (# co-first authors, * co-corresponding authors)

1. Luo S^#, Zha H^#, Yang Z, Li S, Yu L, Qiao R, Kong R, Wang Y, Guan J, Zhang X*. 53BP1 orchestrates sequence feature of RAG targets to balance DNA repair outcomes during V(D)J recombination. Sci Adv. 2026, 12(21):eaec2231.

2.  Wan Z^#, Yu L^#, Yang Z^#, Luo S, Zhou Y, Qiao R, Zha H, Shan X, Wang Y, Li S, Zhang X*. Stag2-mediated chromatin dynamics regulates antibody class switch recombination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2026, 123(19):e2536391123.

3.  Luo S^#, Qiao R^#, Zha H^#, Yu L^#, Shan X, Li S, Yang Z, Ma A, Cheng Y, Zhao YF, Zhang X*. Chromatin-intrinsic mechanisms determine orientation-specific class switch recombination. Nat Commun. 2026, 17(1):3319.

4.  Zhang Y, Zhang X, Dai H-Q, Hu H, Alt FW. The role of chromatin loop extrusion in antibody diversification. Nat Rev Immunol. 2022, 22(9):550-556. Invited review.

5.  Zhang X^*, Yoon HS, Chapdelaine-Williams AM, Kyritsis N, Alt FW^*. Physiological role of the 3’IgH CBEs super anchor in antibody class switching. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021, 118(3):e2024392118. (^*Co-corresponding author)

   Commented by: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021, 118(6):e2026399118.

6.  Zhang X, Zhang Y, Ba Z, Kyritsis N, Casellas R, Alt FW^*. Fundamental roles of chromatin loop extrusion in antibody class switching. Nature. 2019, 575(7782):385-389.

   Commented by: Nature. 2019, 575(7782):291-293.

7.  Zhang Y^#, Zhang X^#, Ba Z, Liang Z, Dring EW, Hu H, Lou J, Kyritsis N, Zurita J, Shamim MS, Presser Aiden A, Lieberman Aiden E, Alt FW^*. The fundamental role of chromatin loop extrusion in physiological V(D)J recombination. Nature. 2019 573(7775):600-604. (^# Co-first author)

   Commented by: Nature. 2019, 575(7782):291-293. Immunol Cell Bio. 2019. 97:859-861.

8.  Panchakshari RA^#, Zhang X^#, Kumar V, Du Z, Wei PC, Kao J, Dong J^*, Alt FW^*. DNA double-strand break response factors influence end-joining features of IgH class switch and general translocation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018, 115(4):762-767. (^# Co-first author)