Kang Zhang's Biography

Kang Zhang, Founding Director, Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California-San Diego

Kang Zhang, MD, PhD is the founding director of Institute for Genomic Medicine, Co-Director of BioMaterials and Tissue Engineering Center at Institute of Engineering in Medicine, Chief of Ophthalmic Genetics, Professor of Ophthalmology, Nanoengineering, and Human Genetics at University of California San Diego. Dr. Zhang obtained his M.D. with Magna Cum Laude honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT joint MD program and his PhD in genetics from Harvard University. He did his postdoctoral training also at Harvard. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University and his retina surgery fellowship at University of Utah. He was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and the University of Utah.

Dr. Zhang has published over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts in top peer-reviewed journals- covering a wide range of topics in genetics, epigenetics, stem cells, nano-engineering and 3D printing, clinical trials, and artificial intelligence. He has more than 25,000 citations and an h-index of 67. His discovery that HTRA1 is a major susceptibility gene for age-related macular degeneration is listed as one of “top-ten breakthroughs in 2006” by Science and his groundbreaking work on lens regeneration using endogenous stem cells is named as one of “Eight Breakthroughs in 2016” by Nature Medicine. His cutting-edge research has been extensively covered by prominent news media including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, LA Times, Xinhua News Agency, NBC, CBS 60 Minutes, ABC, BBC, and CCTV.