Wenbo Zhang, PhD

Professor, UTMB Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences

Phone: (409) 747-2552
Fax: (409) 747-2552
Email: we2zhang@utmb.edu

Office: Clay Hall 1.112A
Lab: Clay Hall 1.108 & 1.112

Wenbo Zhang, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. He received his Ph.D. in cell biology from the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China, in 2003. For his postdoctoral training, he joined the Vascular Biology Center of Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta where he was the recipient of postdoctoral fellowship awards from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International and American Heart Association. Dr. Zhang joined the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2011.

The long-term research goal in Dr. Zhang's laboratory is to understand mechanisms of retinal injury in ischemic retinopathy such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and glaucoma. His work includes three areas of the pathology of ischemic retinopathy: retinal neuronal injury, retinal vascular leakage and degeneration, and retinal pathological angiogenesis.

His group is now assessing the involvement of ER stress and inflammatory cytokines in particular chemokines in the development and progression of above diseases. In addition to inflammation, he is working on a new field to study Notch signaling in capillary degeneration in diabetic retinopathy. The techniques used in his laboratory include small animal (mouse and rat) models, primary cultured cells, molecular biology, biochemistry, immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and state-of-art imaging techniques.

Selected Publications

  1. Zhang W*, Yokota H*, Xu Z, Narayanan SP, Yancey L, Yoshida A, Marcus D, Caldwell RA, Caldwell RB, Brooks SE. Hyperoxia Therapy of Pre-proliferative Ischemic Retinopathy in a Mouse Model (2011). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci.52:6384-95.
  2. Zhang W#, Liu H, Rojas M, Caldwell RW, Caldwell RB. Anti-inflammatory therapy for diabetic retinopathy (2011, Invited Review). Immunotherapy. 3, 609-28.
  3. Rojas M*, Zhang W*, Lee D, Romero M, Al-Shabrawey M, Tsai NT, Liou G, Caldwell RW, Caldwell RB. Role of IL-6 in Angiotensin II-induced Retinal Vascular Inflammation (2010). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 51, 1709-18.
  4. Zhang W*, Baban B*, Rojas M, Tofigh S, Virmani S, Patel C, Behzadian M, Romero M, Caldwell RW, Caldwell RB. Arginase activity mediates retinal inflammation in endotoxin-induced uveitis (2009). Am J Pathol. 175, 891-902.
  5. Zhang W, Rojas M, Lilly B, Tsai NT, Lemtalsi T, Liou GI, Caldwell RW, Caldwell RB. NAD(P)H oxidase-dependent regulation of CCL2 production during retinal inflammation (2009). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 50, 3033-40.

Dr. Zhang's research interest is to understand mechanisms of retinal injury in ischemic retinopathy such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and glaucoma.