About

Professor Fan Zhang is a faculty member at the College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, leading the Zhang Laboratory. His research focuses on pharmaceutical sciences, particularly in the design of prodrugs for small molecule immune modulators. His work involves developing innovative drug delivery systems and exploring nanotherapeutics, as evidenced by the research interests of his lab members, which include dendrimer-based nanoformulations for mRNA delivery, in situ programming of solid tumors via LNP/RNA delivery, and studying myeloid cell interactions with nanotherapeutics through nano-bio interfaces. Professor Zhang's laboratory aims to advance the understanding and application of nanotechnology and drug delivery in the treatment of various diseases, contributing to the fields of cancer biology, immunology, and pharmaceutical sciences.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Medicine
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation
• Endocrinology
• Internal medicine
• Genetics
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Anatomy
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• RpS3 Is Required for Spermatogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster

  Cells · 2023 · 18 citations

  • Biology
  • Cell biology
  • Genetics

  spermatogenesis.

  DOI

• Investigation of the role of miR-221 in diabetic peripheral neuropathy and related molecular mechanisms

  Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine · 2021 · 22 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Endocrinology
  • Internal medicine

  BACKGROUND: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common complications of diabetes, but the molecular mechanisms of DPN are still unclear. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of miR-221 in DPN and the related molecular mechanisms. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Streptozotocin (STZ) was used to establish an in vivo DPN model. An in vitro DPN model was established using high glucose-induced SH-SY5Y cells. The pain condition of rats was measured by evaluating the 50% paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) and paw withdrawal latency (PWL). Serum exosomes were extracted and identified. Expression of miR-221 in serum exosomes and serum SOCS3 expression were determined using reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Western blotting was used to measure the protein levels of SOCS3, bradykinin (BK) and prostaglandin E2 (PEG2). The dual luciferase reporter assay was performed to confirm SOCS3 3'-UTR as a target of miR-221. The serum or cell supernatant levels of PEG2, BK, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Induction of the lenti-miR-221 inhibitor significantly decreased the expression of miR-221 in DPN rats. Both 50% PWT and PWL values were markedly decreased in DPN rats. When miR-221 was inhibited, the 50% PWT and PWL values were both significantly increased. Knockdown of miR-221 significantly increased the expression of SOCS3 and decreased the expression of NF-κB. Furthermore, knockdown of miR-221 remarkably decreased the expression of PEG2, BK, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α in both STZ-treated DPN rats and high glucose-induced SH-SY5Y cells, which was reversed by inhibition of SOCS3. The dual luciferase reporter assay showed that miR-221 directly targeted and negatively regulated SOCS3. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibition of miR-221 can reduce pain and decrease expression of inflammatory factors through targeting SOCS3 in DPN.

  DOI

• Selection of Muscle-Activity-Based Cost Function in Human-in-the-Loop Optimization of Multi-Gait Ankle Exoskeleton Assistance

  IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering · 2021 · 57 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Physical medicine and rehabilitation
  • Artificial Intelligence

  Using "human-in-the-loop" (HIL) optimization can obtain suitable exoskeleton assistance patterns to improve walking economy. However, there are differences in these patterns under different gait conditions, and currently most HIL optimizations use metabolic cost, which requires long periods to be estimated for each control law, as the physiological objective to minimize. We aimed to construct a muscle-activity-based cost function and to find the appropriate initial assistance patterns in HIL optimization of multi-gait ankle exoskeleton assistance. One healthy subject walked assisted by an ankle exoskeleton under nine gait conditions and each condition was the combination of different walking speeds, ground slopes and load weights. Ten assistance patterns were provided for the subject under each gait condition. Then we constructed a cost function based on surface electromyography signals of four lower leg muscles and select the muscle weight combination by using particle swarm optimization algorithm to compose the cost function with maximum differences between different assistance patterns. The mean weights of medial gastrocnemius, lateral gastrocnemius, soleus and tibialis anterior activity under all gait conditions are 0.153, 0.104, 0.953 and 0.145, respectively. Then we verified the effectiveness of this cost function by optimization and validation experiments conducted on four subjects. Our results are expected to guide the selection of muscle-activity-based cost functions and improve the time efficiency of HIL optimization.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Feng Han

  23 shared

• Zheng Fu

  Hebei Finance University

  22 shared

• Wengong Yu

  Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology

  18 shared

• Luyao Tang

  13 shared

• Swarup Bhunia

  University of Florida

  12 shared

• Juanjuan Su

  Zhejiang Sci-Tech University

  10 shared

• Haimeng Li

  Northeast Forestry University

  9 shared

• Zhelun Zhang

  UNSW Sydney

  9 shared

Labs

• Zhang LaboratoryPI

Education

• Ph.D., Materials Science & Engineering

  Johns Hopkins University

• Other

  Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Awards & honors

• American Brain Tumor Association In situ program CAR-Macroph…
• American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (2022-2…

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