Luoping Zhang
Associate Adjunct Professor, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
PHONE: (510) 643-5189
FAX: (510) 642-0427
E-MAIL: luoping@berkeley.edu
Dr. Luoping Zhang is currently an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. She is Associate Director of GEL and the Benzene Health Effects Program. Dr. Zhang is also co-Leader and co-investigator in the UC Berkeley Superfund Basic Research Program. She received her B.S. in Physical Chemistry from Wuhan University and her M.S. in Biochemistry from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, both in Wuhan. She completed her Ph.D. in Biochemical Toxicology from Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada in 1993.
Dr. Zhang is recognized as a leading authority on FISH (Fluorescence in situ Hybridization) methodology and is an innovator in developing new FISH assays. She developed a FISH method that allows the simultaneous observation of the specific rearrangements of all 24 human chromosomes, such that all common genetic changes in the development of leukemia and/or lymphoma can be detected. Since 1990, she has applied FISH methodology in studies involving benzene toxicity in human blood and progenitor cells of exposed workers, as well as in childhood leukemia and lymphoma to search for more effective early biomarkers. Dr. Zhang has collaborated with the US National Cancer Institute, China CDC and other academic institutions for several large-scale molecular epidemiological studies, such as a series of biomarker studies in China of workers exposed to benzene, butadiene, trichloroethylene (TCE) and formaldehyde.
Dr. Zhang’s major focus is to apply biomarkers, molecular cytogenetics, and new omic technologies to further understand the causes and mechanisms of leukemia and lymphoma caused by environmental pollutants. Recently, she has turned her attention to studying human stem cell toxicology.