Yang Zhang

Professor of Pharmacology
Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Office: 
University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Health 2, Room 5025
4349 Martin Luther King Boulevard
Houston, TX 77204-5037

Contact: yzhan219@central.uh.edu - 713-743-7710

Research:

My major goal of research is to investigate the molecular and immunological mechanisms implicating in the initiation of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, coronary artery diseases (macro- and micro-vascular dysfunction), and arterial stiffening/calcification. Currently, our research programs involve the characterization of the pathogenic roles of inflammasomes in vascular injury and fibrosis. These include how inflammasomes participate in the recruitment and activation of immune or inflammatory cells, what is the uncanonical role of inflammasomes in tissue injury and repair, and whether the inflammasome is involved in RNA receptor signaling in determining the susceptibility to degenerative vascular injury during repeated viral infections. Another research program is aimed to define the molecular mechanisms regulating lysosome-autophagy pathway associated with sphingolipids and redox signaling as well as the control of cell differentiation and dedifferentiation during atherogenesis and non-atherosclerotic vasculopathy such as arterial stiffening and arterial medial calcification. Our experimental approach combines different physiological, biochemical and molecular methodologies including high-speed wavelength switching fluorescence imaging, confocal microscopy, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, electron spin resonance spectrometry, in vivo ultrasound Doppler imaging, electron microscopy, ultrasound-microbubble in vivo plasmid delivery for local tissue-specific silencing and rescuing of knockout gene, ex vivo video microscopy of small artery, tissue-specific gene knockout mice, and surgical animal models.