Rate My Professor Zhe Han

Zhe Han, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in Physiology, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Director of the Center for Precision Disease Modeling. He received his B.S. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Peking University in 1996, Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan in 2002, and completed postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology and Developmental Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from 2002 to 2006. Dr. Han's academic career began as Assistant Professor in the Division of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan Medical School from 2006 to 2013. He then served as Associate Professor at Children’s National Health System and George Washington University School of Medicine from 2014 to 2019, before joining the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2019, where he advanced to Professor.

Dr. Han's research employs Drosophila and human cells to model human genetic diseases, with emphasis on heart, kidney, blood, muscle, metabolic disorders, cancer, and COVID-19. His lab pioneered Drosophila nephrocytes as models for human podocytes in nephrotic syndrome and APOL1 nephropathy, high-throughput validation for congenital heart disease variants, and functional analysis of SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Achievements include the "Gene Replacement" approach for disease gene validation and identification of a dietary supplement as targeted therapy for COQ2-related kidney disease. Select publications are "SARS-CoV-2 Nsp6 causes cardiac defects through MGA/MAX complex-mediated increased glycolysis" (Communications Biology, 2022), "Exocyst Genes Are Essential for Recycling Membrane Proteins and Maintaining Slit Diaphragm in Drosophila Nephrocytes" (Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 2020), "Mutations in NUP160 are implicated in Steroid-Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome" (JASN, 2019), and "High throughput in vivo functional validation of candidate congenital heart disease genes in Drosophila" (eLife, 2017). Major awards include NIH R01 grants such as R01-DK098410 ("Drosophila, a new genetic model for glomerular diseases and drug discovery") and R01-HL134940 ("Ancestral roles of histone-modifying genes in heart development and disease"), and the American Heart Association National Scientist Development Award (2006). Dr. Han leads the Disease Modeling Unit and Coordination Section in CPDM@UMB, advancing precision disease modeling.