Dr. Zha earned her
Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University, where she specialized in secondary
ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). She completed her postdoctoral training in cell
biology at Columbia University with Dr. Fred Maxfield, applying advanced fluorescence
microscopy to investigate cellular membrane dynamics. During this time, she
developed a lasting interest in cholesterol biology—specifically, how
cholesterol dysregulation contributes to human disease.
Her research program
seeks to uncover the fundamental roles of cholesterol: what it does, why it is
unique to animals, and how its imbalance underlies a range of modern health
disorders. Emerging findings suggest that cholesterol functions as an environmental
factor that shapes immune responses, highlighting the importance of maintaining
low plasma cholesterol to protect against acute infections.
More recently, Dr.
Zha has focused on macrophages, examining how cholesterol influences their
inflammatory responses through epigenetic reprogramming. Using genomic tools
such as ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, and ATAC-seq, her team is identifying
cholesterol-regulated epigenetic pathways that drive macrophage plasticity and
immune polarization.
1. Salloum Z, Dauner K, Li YF, Verma N, Valdivieso-González D, Almendro-Vedia VG, Zhang JD, Nakka K, Chen MX, McDonald JG, Corley CD, Sorisky A, Song BL, López-Montero I, Luo J, Dilworth JF,
Zha X. “Statin-mediated reduction in mitochondrial cholesterol primes an anti-inflammatory response in macrophages by upregulating Jmjd3.”
Elife. 2024 Apr 11;13:e85964.
2. Nakka K, Hachmer S, Mokhtari Z, Kovac R, Bandukwala H, Bernard C, Li Y, Xie G, Liu C, Fallahi M, Megeney LA, Gondin J, Chazaud B, Brand M,
Zha X, Ge K, Dilworth FJ. “JMJD3 activated hyaluronan synthesis drives muscle regeneration in an inflammatory environment”.
Science. 2022 Aug 5;377(6606):666-669.
3. Singh RK, Haka AS, Bhardwaj P,
Zha X and Maxfield FR, “Dynamic Actin Reorganization and Vav/Cdc42-dependent Actin Polymerization Promote Macrophage Aggregated LDL Uptake and Catabolism”
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB), 2019, Feb; 39(2): 137-149.
4. Courtney KC, Fung KYY, Maxfield FR, Fairn GD,
Zha X, “Comment on “Orthogonal lipid sensors identify transbilayer asymmetry of plasma membrane cholesterol.”
ELife, 2018, Nov. 13; 7-10.
5. Courtney KC, Pezeshkian W, Raghupathy R, Zhang C, Darbyson A, Ipsen JH, Ford DA, Khandelia H, Presley JF,
Zha X, “C24 Sphingolipids Govern the Transbilayer Asymmetry of Cholesterol and Lateral Organization of Model and Live-Cell Plasma Membranes.”
Cell Reports, 2018 Jul 24;24(4):1037-1049.
6. Eid W, Dauner K, Courtney, Gagnon A, Parks R, Sorisky A,
Zha X, “mTORC1 Activates SREBP-2 by Suppressing Cholesterol Trafficking to Lysosomes in Mammalian Cells”,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2017, Jul 25;114(30):7999-8004.
7. Dauner K, Eid W, Raghupathy R, Presley JF,
Zha X, “mTOR complex 1 activity is required to maintain the canonical endocytic recycling pathway against lysosomal delivery”.
J. Biol. Chem., 2017, April 7;292(14):5737-5747.
