Biography
Wei-Zhen Zhang, MD, PhD, is a Research Professor at the Department of Surgery, the University of Michigan. Dr. Zhang received his bachelors in medicine from Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences in 1987, and Ph.D. from Beijing Medical University in 1994. Dr. Zhang is the author of over 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts in prestigious journal such as Hepatology, Nature Communications, PNAS and Diabetes. He has been invited to serve as a reviewer for many journals and funding agencies including NSFC and ADA, to deliver numerous visiting professor lectures and presentations. He has been serving as editor-in-chief of three journals and editor board member of three other journals.
Dr. Zhang's research focuses on defining the mechanisms by which gut interacts with metabolic organs to regulate glucose and lipid metabolism. He is the pioneer in the definition of gastric fuel sensing mechanism. His works unravel the mechanism by which gastric endocrine cells sense the fuel supply to coordinate the production of gastric hormones with fuel status at the organism levels. The gastric hormones then function to modulate the food intake as well as glucose and lipid homeostasis.