Dr. Xuehong Zhang,
A seasoned scholar in public health and clinical medicine, Dr. Zhang brings almost two decades of experience from Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Zhang’s dedication to research includes primary prevention and early detection of gastrointestinal diseases and cancers, advancing clinical care quality, and promoting health equity and global health.
Dr. Zhang joins the YSN community with a distinguished track record of developing and launching epidemiological, clinical, and community-based research programs, collaborations across departments and schools, and advocacy and support for early-career researchers at Harvard and beyond. Currently, Dr. Zhang is the principal investigator of more than 10 research projects including the NCI MERIT Award R37, two U01s, and the American Cancer Society Interdisciplinary Team Award.
His original research has been featured in over 240 research publications in JAMA, Nature Communications, Gut, Hepatology, Journal of National Cancer Institute, and other high-impact journals. He currently serves in multiple NIH/NCI and the American Cancer Society study sections. As a dedicated mentor, he takes pleasure in teaching and has actively mentored more than 30 early-career researchers at Harvard and other institutions.
Dr. Zhang brings to the position high energy and enthusiasm for YSN’s mission of better health for all people. He is dedicated to identifying modifiable factors such as diet, lifestyle, obesity, and environment toxins and new biomarkers in relation to digestive diseases and cancers, and also applies novel clinical, epidemiological, and community-based approaches to intervene and improve the early detection and global prevention for cancer and health disparities. Dr. Zhang’s entire professional career closely aligns with our expanding innovative scholarship.
He brings myriad experience in multidisciplinary collaborative research and international consortia to his new role and will help YSN to develop and enrich research programs that are important to support our faculty and students. Together, Dr. Zhang and YSN will expand our research portfolio to enhance health and reduce health inequities.
When he arrives on campus on Monday, March 4th, Dr. Zhang will be supported by Kelsey Smith. I hope you all will join me in welcoming him to YSN!