Huaiying Zhang

Huaiying Zhang is a Courtesy Professor in Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, affiliated with the Department of Physics. Her research focuses on the phase transition process of liquid-liquid demixing, which organizes proteins and RNAs into liquid compartments in cells. She investigates how this process supports cellular functions in healthy cells and how its misregulation contributes to cancer. Zhang also engineers synthetic organelles inspired by cellular mechanisms and develops therapeutic strategies targeting phase transitions in cancer cells. Her work includes developing optogenetic tools to manipulate phase transitions and studying telomere DNA synthesis in cancer cells.

Huaiying Zhang is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, specializing in Phase Separation, Telomeres, Cell Division, Cancer, and Synthetic Biology. Her research explores the role of RNA in regulating protein phase transitions and how these processes influence cellular functions. Zhang investigates telomere dynamics, particularly in ALT cancer cells, and examines the interplay between nuclear body phase separation and telomere clustering. Her work also includes the study of protein aggregation in cell-cycle control and the development of optogenetic tools for manipulating kinetochore function. Additionally, she explores synthetic biology applications in biodesulfurization and the biophysical properties of RNA/protein liquid phases.