Chenming (Mike) Zhang
- Turner Faculty Fellow
- Research: Nanovaccines, Protein Expression, Protein Purification, Vaccine development, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology
Education
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University, 1999
M.S., Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Iowa State University, 1996
B.S., Metallurgical Physical Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China, 1988
Experience
2013-Present - Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering; VT-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (affiliated faculty), Virginia Tech
2007-2013 - Associate Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering; VT-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (affiliated faculty), Virginia Tech
2001-2007 - Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech
1999-2001 - Scientist, Purification Development, Covance Biotechnology Services, Inc., Cary, NC
Selected Major Awards
- 2022 – Excellence in Applied Research Award, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech
- 2016, 2021 - Turner Faculty Fellowship
- 2015 - Dean’s award for excellence in research, College of Engineering, Virginia Tech
- 2006 - National Academy of Engineering, Young Investigator Award/Vaccine Production Starter Grant
- 2004 - Outstanding New Assistant Professor Award College of Engineering, Virginia Tech
Courses Taught Last Five Years
- BSE 3524 - Unit operations in BSE
- BSE 4534 – Bioprocess engineering lab
- BSE 4544 - Protein separation engineering
- BSE 5544 – Advanced protein separation engineering
- BSE 5614 - Advances in recombinant protein production
Program Focus
My research program has three main focuses:
1) Protein expression and purification. In this focus area, our main goal is to express certain proteins in selected expression system and develop economical processes for the recovery and purification of the recombinant proteins.
2) Nanovaccines against psychoactive compounds. In this area, our main goal is to synthesize uniquely structured nanoparticles as vaccines against psychoactive compounds, such as nicotine and opioids.
3) Vaccine against infectious diseases. In this area, our main goal is to develop vaccines against an important animal disease, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV).
(* undergraduate student, ** graduate student, *** post-doc)
Reviewed Journals
- He Hu*, Chenming Zhang. Conjugation of multiple proteins onto the surface of PLGA/lipid hybrid nanoparticles. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part A. Accepted, in press.
- Debra L. Walter*, Yuanzhi Bian*, He Hu*, Fatima A. Hamid, Kobra Rostamizadeh, Jennifer R. Vigliaturo, Riley DeHority*, Marion Ehrich, Scott Runyon, Marco Pravetoni, and Chenming Zhang. The Immunological and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Lipid-PLGA Hybrid Nanoparticle-Based Oxycodone Vaccines. Biomaterials. 313(2025) 122758.
- Fatima Hamid, Scott Schactler, Siram Karthik, Hardik Amin, Debra Walter,* Minh Le, Chenming Zhang, David Burkhart, Marco Pravetoni. Deciphering immunological mechanisms underlying the efficacy of vaccines against opioid use disorder (OUD). Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics June 2023, 385 (S3) 255; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.122.283050.
- Yuanzhi Bian,* Debra L. Walter,* Chenming Zhang. Efficiency of interferon-γ in activating dendritic cells and its potential synergy with toll-like receptor agonists. Viruses (MDPI). 2023, 15, 1198. doi.org/10.3390/v15051198.
- Anna M. Hassebroek,* Harini Sooryanarain, C. Lynn Heffron, Seth A. Hawks, Tanya LeRoith, Thomas E. Cecere, William B. Stone, Debra Walter,* Hassan M. Mahsoub, Bo Wang, Debin Tian, Hannah M. Ivester, Irving C. Allen, A. Jonathan Auguste, Nisha K. Duggal, Chenming Zhang, and Xiang-Jin Meng. 2023. A hepatitis B virus core antigen-based virus-like particle vaccine expressing SARS-CoV-2 B and T cell epitopes induces epitope-specific humoral and cell-mediated immune responses but confers limited protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Journal of Medical Virology. 92(2): e28503. Doi:10.1002/jmv.28503.
Novel nanosensors for the rapid and sensitive detection of animal diseases. USDA-NIFA, Zhang, C. (PI), Chen, J., Meng, XJ. 9/1/2023-8/31/2027.
Recent:
Novel nanovaccines against opioid use disorders, NIDA (UG3DA048775), Zhang, C. (PI), Pravetoni, M. (PI), Ehrich, M., LeSage, M., Runyon, S. 7/15/2019-6/30/2024.