Chaoming Zhou , MD

Chaoming obtained her medical degree from Jinan University of Medical Science in Guangzhou, China, in 1986. Before moving to Pittsburgh, she performed research in the department of clinical nutrition at Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences (Guangzhou, China), the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC, USA), and the cancer genetics, department of biochemistry at the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand). Chaoming has worked at the University of Pittsburgh for more than twenty years in the departments of pharmacology, plastic surgery, and physical medicine & rehabilitation. She possesses a broad range of knowledge and expertise with laboratory techniques, especially in molecular biology, protein chemistry, and cell signaling. Her current projects include: (1) creating a molecular tool using genetically encoded in-vivo optical-readout strategies of beta amyloid protein pathology to understand its function in neurodegeneration, (2) creating a tool with a built-in indicator of microtubules or GCaMP to turn lifetime data into beautiful color images in neural cells and live brains to monitor the physiological and pathological change, and (3) using western blotting methods to detect the protein expression in cells and brain tissue, particularly in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.