Rate My Professor Lin Zhang

Lin Zhang, M.D., is the Harry Fields Research Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Her research unravels the molecular mechanisms underlying ovarian and breast cancers, focusing on innovative immunotherapies and targeted therapies for these diseases. She investigates the antitumor immune response and immunotherapy strategies for ovarian cancer, as well as the tumor microenvironment that promotes immune tolerance and angiogenesis. Zhang examines recurrent genomic alterations in protein-coding and non-coding regions contributing to tumorigenesis, emphasizing identification of therapeutic targets and combination strategies. Additional interests include noncoding RNAs in epigenetic regulation and DNA damage response, functional characterization of genomic alterations in druggable genes including epigenetic regulatory genes, and employing a systems biology approach to integrate multi-dimensional genomic profiles. She has created the Functional Cancer Genome (FCG) data portal for annotating cancer genomes.

Zhang has authored numerous influential publications advancing cancer research. Her landmark 2003 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, "Intratumoral T cells, recurrence, and survival in epithelial ovarian cancer," established the prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Other key contributions include "A Functional Genomic Approach Identifies FAL1 as an Oncogenic Long Noncoding RNA that Associates with BMI1 and Represses p21 Expression in Cancer" (Cancer Cell, 2014), "Comprehensive Genomic Characterization of Long Non-coding RNAs across Human Cancers" (Cancer Cell, 2015), "Long noncoding RNA LINP1 regulates repair of DNA double-strand breaks in triple-negative breast cancer" (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2016), "Repression of BET activity sensitizes homologous recombination-proficient cancers to PARP inhibition" (Science Translational Medicine, 2017), "Integrated analysis of genetic ancestry and genomic alterations across cancers" (Cancer Cell, 2018), "Genomic characterization of genes encoding histone acetylation modulator proteins identifies therapeutic targets for cancer treatment" (Nature Communications, 2019), "Systematic characterization of recurrent genomic alterations in cyclin-dependent kinases reveals potential therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment" (Cell Reports, 2020), "The Cancer Surfaceome Atlas integrates genomic, functional and drug response data to identify actionable targets" (Nature Cancer, 2021), and "Systematic illumination of druggable genes in cancer genomes" (Cell Reports, 2022). These works underscore her substantial impact on genomic drivers of cancer and precision oncology.