ZHANG Guojie Ph.D.  

Award

Dr. ZHANG Guojie was the recipient of the following awards:

2010 Leading Talent in Science of Shenzhen city

2011 Top 100 excellent theses, Chinese Academy of Sciences  

2011 Sir Frederick McMaster Visiting Fellowship, CSIRO, Australia

2012 Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, European Commission

2013 Ju-chi Li Animal Genetics Prize (two awards every second year in China)

2014 Second prize for Fourth Science and Technology Innovation Outstanding Academic Award in Guangdong

2015 Young Investigator Award, Shenzhen

2015 Lundbeck Fellow (Denmark)

2017 Carlsberg Distinguished Associate Professorship (Denmark)

Project

Dr. ZHANG Guojie was the awardee of the following grants:

·       The Chinese National Basic Research Program with the project “Genome Evolution and Domestication” (2007-2012)

·       Co-PI of the project “Major New Drugs Innovation and Development” funded by the National Science and Technology Council in China (2011-2013)

·       Co-PI of the Program “Functional Genomics in Flatfish” funded by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2011-2013)

·       PI of the project “Functional Genomics Model Construction of Anti-aging Mechanism in Naked Mole Rat”, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2011-2013)

·       PI of the project ‘RNA-Editome of the fungus-growing ants’, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2011-2013)

·       Lundbeck Fellowship on ‘Developmental and brain genomics of superorganisms’ (2015-2020)

·       PI of the project ‘Big Biodiversity Genomics Investigation’, funded by Strategic Priority Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015-2020)

The major research interest of our group is to understand the fundamental molecular processes that produce adapted phenotypes in response to variation in the physical and social environment of organisms. We have developed and applied comparative genomic tools to address the classical questions of diversification, adaptation and speciation across a broad spectrum of organisms.

·       Biodiversity Genomics Research

Our group have participated in de novo sequencing of >150 genomes of non-model animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and insects. Particularly, our group initiated the Bird 10K genome (B10K) project; the Global Ant Genomics Alliance (GAGA) project; the Genome 10K project and the Earth BioGenome project.

·       Developmental Genomics Research

Our group work on programs to address important developmental questions, such as sex determination mechanisms and limb development in vertebrates. Our research interests on sex determination are on the evolutionary process of the sex chromosome pairs and epigenetic regulation mechanisms in environmental sex determination system by using the comparative genomics and functional genomics tools. We also identified millions of avian-specific highly conserved elements (ASHCEs) from the whole genome comparison for the 48 bird species, we are to explore the functional roles of ASHCEs in the development of avian-specific features.

·       Evolution and Development of Social Behavior

We are interested in understanding the evolution and development of sociality. Towards this goal, we are applying advanced genomics methods to interrogate the genomic features in diversified social insect species. We have established genomic engineering platform to perform the cutting-edge gene editing in ants. We are also developing the word-wide-distributed pharaoh ants as model animal for caste differentiation and social behavior research.

1.         Avalos A, Pan H, Li C, Acevedo Gonzalez J P, Rendon G, Fields C J, Brown PJ, Giray T, Robinson GE, Hudson ME, Zhang G*. 2017. A soft selective sweep during rapid evolution of gentle behaviour in an Africanized honeybee. Nature Communications, 8:155

2.         Seki R, Li C, Fang Q, Hayashi S, Egowa S, Hu J, Xu L, Pan H, Kondo M, Sato T, Matsubara H, Kamiyama N, Kitajima K, Saito D, Liu Y, Gilbert MTP, Zhou Q, Xu X, Shiroishi T, Irie N*, Tamura K*, Zhang G*. 2017. Functional roles of Aves class-specific cis-regulatory elements on macroevolution of bird-specific features. Nature Communications 8: 14229

3.         Nygaard S, Hu H, Li, C, Schi？tt M, Chen Z, Yang Z, Xie Q, Ma C, Deng Y, Dikow BR, Rabeling C, Nash RD, Wcislo TW, Brady GS, Schultz RT, Zhang G*, Boomsma J*. 2016. Reciprocal genomic evolution in the ant-fungus agricultural symbiosis. Nature Communications 7: 12233

4.         Kapheim KM, Pan H, Li C, Salzberg SL, Puiu D, Magoc T, Robertson HM, Hudson ME, Venkat A, Fischman BJ, Hernandez A, Yandell M, Ence D, Holt C, Yocum GD, Kemp WP, Bosch J, Waterhouse RM, Zdobnov EM, Stolle E, Kraus FB, Helbing S, Moritz RF, Glastad KM, Hunt BG, Goodisman MA, Hauser F, Grimmelikhuijzen CJ, Pinheiro DG, Nunes FM, Soares MP, Tanaka ED, Simoes ZL, Hartfelder K, Evans JD, Barribeau SM, Johnson RM, Massey JH, Southey BR, Hasselmann M, Hamacher D, Biewer M, Kent CF, Zayed A, Blatti C, 3rd, Sinha S, Johnston JS, Hanrahan SJ, Kocher SD, Wang J, Robinson GE, & Zhang G*. 2015. Social evolution. Genomic signatures of evolutionary transitions from solitary to group living. Science 348(6239):1139-1143.

5.         Jarvis ED*, Mirarab S, Aberer AJ, Li B, Houde P, Li C, Ho SY, Faircloth BC, Nabholz B, Howard JT, Suh A, Weber CC, da Fonseca RR, Li J, Zhang F, Li H, Zhou L, Narula N, Liu L, Ganapathy G, Boussau B, Bayzid MS, Zavidovych V, Subramanian S, Gabaldon T, Capella-Gutierrez S, Huerta-Cepas J, Rekepalli B, Munch K, Schierup M, Lindow B, Warren WC, Ray D, Green RE, Bruford MW, Zhan X, Dixon A, Li S, Li N, Huang Y, Derryberry EP, Bertelsen MF, Sheldon FH, Brumfield RT, Mello CV, Lovell PV, Wirthlin M, Schneider MP, Prosdocimi F, Samaniego JA, Vargas Velazquez AM, Alfaro-Nunez A, Campos PF, Petersen B, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Pas A, Bailey T, Scofield P, Bunce M, Lambert DM, Zhou Q, Perelman P, Driskell AC, Shapiro B, Xiong Z, Zeng Y, Liu S, Li Z, Liu B, Wu K, Xiao J, Yinqi X, Zheng Q, Zhang Y, Yang H, Wang J, Smeds L, Rheindt FE, Braun M, Fjeldsa J, Orlando L, Barker FK, Jonsson KA, Johnson W, Koepfli KP, O'Brien S, Haussler D, Ryder OA, Rahbek C, Willerslev E, Graves GR, Glenn TC, McCormack J, Burt D, Ellegren H, Alstrom P, Edwards SV, Stamatakis A, Mindell DP, Cracraft J, Braun EL, Warnow T, Jun W, Gilbert MT* & Zhang G*. 2014. Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds. Science 346 (6215): 1320-1331.

6.         Zhou Q*, Zhang J, Bachtrog D, An N, Huang Q, Jarvis ED, Gilbert MT, & Zhang G*. 2014. Complex evolutionary trajectories of sex chromosomes across bird taxa. Science 346(6215):1246338.

7.         Zhang G*, Li C, Li Q, Li B, Larkin DM, Lee C, Storz JF, Antunes A, Greenwold MJ, Meredith RW, Odeen A, Cui J, Zhou Q, Xu L, Pan H, Wang Z, Jin L, Zhang P, Hu H, Yang W, Hu J, Xiao J, Yang Z, Liu Y, Xie Q, Yu H, Lian J, Wen P, Zhang F, Li H, Zeng Y, Xiong Z, Liu S, Zhou L, Huang Z, An N, Wang J, Zheng Q, Xiong Y, Wang G, Wang B, Wang J, Fan Y, da Fonseca RR, Alfaro-Nunez A, Schubert M, Orlando L, Mourier T, Howard JT, Ganapathy G, Pfenning A, Whitney O, Rivas MV, Hara E, Smith J, Farre M, Narayan J, Slavov G, Romanov MN, Borges R, Machado JP, Khan I, Springer MS, Gatesy J, Hoffmann FG, Opazo JC, Hastad O, Sawyer RH, Kim H, Kim KW, Kim HJ, Cho S, Li N, Huang Y, Bruford MW, Zhan X, Dixon A, Bertelsen MF, Derryberry E, Warren W, Wilson RK, Li S, Ray DA, Green RE, O'Brien SJ, Griffin D, Johnson WE, Haussler D, Ryder OA, Willerslev E, Graves GR, Alstrom P, Fjeldsa J, Mindell DP, Edwards SV, Braun EL, Rahbek C, Burt DW, Houde P, Zhang Y, Yang H, Wang J, Avian Genome C, Jarvis ED*, Gilbert MT* & Wang J*. 2014. Comparative genomics reveals insights into avian genome evolution and adaptation. Science 346(6215):1311-1320.

8.         Poulsen M, Hu H, Li C, Chen Z, Xu L, Otani S, Nygaard S, Nobre T, Klaubauf S, Schindler PM, Hauser F, Pan H, Yang Z, Sonnenberg AS, de Beer ZW, Zhang Y, Wingfield MJ, Grimmelikhuijzen CJ, de Vries RP, Korb J, Aanen DK, Wang J, Boomsma JJ, & Zhang G*. 2014. Complementary symbiont contributions to plant decomposition in a fungus-farming termite. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(40):14500-14505.

9.         Li Q, Wang Z, Lian J, Schiott M, Jin L, Zhang P, Zhang Y, Nygaard S, Peng Z, Zhou Y, Deng Y, Zhang W, Boomsma JJ, & Zhang G*. 2014. Caste-specific RNA editomes in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior. Nature Communications 5:4943. 

10.     Terrapon N, Li C, Robertson HM, Ji L, Meng X, Booth W, Chen Z, Childers CP, Glastad KM, Gokhale K, Gowin J, Gronenberg W, Hermansen RA, Hu H, Hunt BG, Huylmans AK, Khalil SM, Mitchell RD, Munoz-Torres MC, Mustard JA, Pan H, Reese JT, Scharf ME, Sun F, Vogel H, Xiao J, Yang W, Yang Z, Yang Z, Zhou J, Zhu J, Brent CS, Elsik CG, Goodisman MA, Liberles DA, Roe RM, Vargo EL, Vilcinskas A, Wang J, Bornberg-Bauer E, Korb J, Zhang G*, & Liebig J*. 2014. Molecular traces of alternative social organization in a termite genome. Nature Communications 5:3636.

11.     Chen S, Zhang G, Shao C, Huang Q, Liu G, Zhang P, Song W, An N, Chalopin D, Volff JN, Hong Y, Li Q, Sha Z, Zhou H, Xie M, Yu Q, Liu Y, Xiang H, Wang N, Wu K, Yang C, Zhou Q, Liao X, Yang L, Hu Q, Zhang J, Meng L, Jin L, Tian Y, Lian J, Yang J, Miao G, Liu S, Liang Z, Yan F, Li Y, Sun B, Zhang H, Zhang J, Zhu Y, Du M, Zhao Y, Schartl M, Tang Q, & Wang J. 2014. Whole-genome sequence of a flatfish provides insights into ZW sex chromosome evolution and adaptation to a benthic lifestyle. Nature Genetics 46(3):253-260. (Co-first author)

12.     Wang Z, Pascual-Anaya J, Zadissa A, Li W, Niimura Y, Huang Z, Li C, White S, Xiong Z, Fang D, Wang B, Ming Y, Chen Y, Zheng Y, Kuraku S, Pignatelli M, Herrero J, Beal K, Nozawa M, Li Q, Wang J, Zhang H, Yu L, Shigenobu S, Wang J, Liu J, Flicek P, Searle S, Wang J, Kuratani S, Yin Y, Aken B, Zhang G*, & Irie N*. 2013. The draft genomes of soft-shell turtle and green sea turtle yield insights into the development and evolution of the turtle-specific body plan. Nature Genetics 45(6):701-706.

13.     Fan Y, Huang Z, Cao C, Chen C, Chen Y, Fan D, He J, Hou L, Hu L, Hu X, Jiang X, Lai R, Lang Y, Liang B, Liao S, Mu D, Ma Y, Niu Y, Sun X, Xia J, Xiao J, Xiong Z, Xu L, Yang L, Zhang Y, Zhao W, Zhao X, Zheng Y, Zhou J, Zhu Y, Zhang G*, Wang J*, & Yao Y*. 2013. Genome of the Chinese tree shrew. Nature Communications 4:1426.

14.     Zhang G*, Cowled C, Shi Z, Huang Z, Bishop-Lilly KA, Fang X, Wynne JW, Xiong Z, Baker ML, Zhao W, Tachedjian M, Zhu Y, Zhou P, Jiang X, Ng J, Yang L, Wu L, Xiao J, Feng Y, Chen Y, Sun X, Zhang Y, Marsh GA, Crameri G, Broder CC, Frey KG, Wang LF, & Wang J. 2013. Comparative analysis of bat genomes provides insight into the evolution of flight and immunity. Science 339(6118):456-460.

15.     Qiu Q, Zhang G, Ma T, Qian W, Wang J, Ye Z, Cao C, Hu Q, Kim J, Larkin DM, Auvil L, Capitanu B, Ma J, Lewin HA, Qian X, Lang Y, Zhou R, Wang L, Wang K, Xia J, Liao S, Pan S, Lu X, Hou H, Wang Y, Zang X, Yin Y, Ma H, Zhang J, Wang Z, Zhang Y, Zhang D, Yonezawa T, Hasegawa M, Zhong Y, Liu W, Zhang Y, Huang Z, Zhang S, Long R, Yang H, Wang J, Lenstra JA, Cooper DN, Wu Y, Wang J, Shi P, Wang J, & Liu J. 2012. The yak genome and adaptation to life at high altitude. Nature Genetics 44(8):946-949. (Co-first author)

Dr. ZHANG Guojie got his bachelor degree in 2004 from Xiamen University，and received his Ph.D. degrees from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2010. In 2010, he was a visiting scholar in University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2011 he was a visiting scholar in CSIRO, Australia.Dr. ZHANG Guojie joined BGI，China since 2006. He is the associate director of the research department of BGI, and associate director of China National GeneBank. He joined the faculty of Centre for Social Evolution (CSE), Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen since 2012. He holds full professorship in University of Copenhagen since 2017. He is visiting professor of Kunming Institute of Zoology since 2015.Dr. ZHANG Guojie’s main research fields including: behavioral and neural genomics; phylogenomics and tree of life; genome evolution and animal adaptation.