Zhengting Zou

Research Fellow

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ztzou@umich.edu

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Profile

My name is Zhengting Zou. I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow working in Zhang Lab, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan.

My research is in the field of molecular evolution and evolutionary genomics. I am also interested in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) and evolutionary application of machine learning.

Education

Peking University, Beijing, China

B.A., Biological Science, 2013

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Ph.D., Bioinformatics, 2017

Research Experience

2011 - 2013

School of Life Sciences, Peking University

Undergraduate Research Assistant. Advisor: Dr. Shu-jin Luo

Jun, 2012

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Intern Research Assistant. Advisors: Drs. Yann Surget-Groba and Charles Cannon

2013 - 2017

Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan

Graduate Student Research Assistant. Advisor: Dr. Jianzhi "George" Zhang

2017 - current

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan

Research Fellow. Advisor: Dr. Jianzhi "George" Zhang

Honors and Awards

Founder Scholarship, Peking University, 2010

Wu-Si Scholarship, Peking University, 2011

Rackham Conference Travel Grant, University of Michigan, 2014, 2015, 2016

Rackham International Student Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2015

Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2016

Bioinformatics Academic Achievement Award, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, 2016

Young Investigator Travel Award, Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2017, 2019

Chinese Government Award For Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, 2017

Funding

Summer Internship Grant, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2012

Role: Intern research assistant

NVIDIA GPU Grant, NVIDIA Corporation, 2017

Role: Research fellow applicant

“Deep Learning for Phylogenetic Inference”, $80,000, The Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE), University of Michigan, 2018.

Role: Postdoctoral researcher (PI: Jianzhi Zhang; Co-PI: Yuanfang Guan)

Teaching Experience

2014, 2015

BIOINF 527 “Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology”

Graduate Student Instructor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

2015

BIOLOGY 305 “Introduction to Genetics”

Graduate Student Instructor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

2019, 2020

BIOLOGY 173 “Authentic Research Connection: Experimental Evolution of Yeast”

Guest lecturer and course liaison for bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Publications

(* equal contribution)

Zou Z*, Zhang H*, Guan Y, Zhang J. 2020. Deep residual neural networks resolve quartet molecular phylogenies. Mol. Biol. Evol., in press. PDF Link

Ding X, Zou Z, Brooks III CL. 2019. Deciphering protein evolution and fitness landscapes with latent space models. Nat. Commun., 10: 5644. PDF Link

Zou Z, and Zhang J. 2019. Amino acid exchangeabilities vary across the tree of life. Sci. Adv., 5: eaax3124. PDF Link

Zhang W, Xu X, Yue B, Hou R, Xie J, Zou Z-T, Han Y, Shen F, Zhang L, Xie Z, Yuan Y, Yin Y, Fu W, Chen D, Huang W, Liu Z, Tang Y, Zhao B, Zhang Q, Chen W, Zhang R, Chen J, Luo S-J, Zhang Z. 2019. Sorting out the Genetic Background of the Last Surviving South China Tigers. J. Hered., 110: 641-650. PDF Link

Zou Z, and Zhang J. 2017. Gene tree discordance does not explain away the temporal decline of convergence in mammalian protein sequence evolution. Mol. Biol. Evol., 34: 1682-1688. PDF Link

Zou Z, and Zhang J. 2016. Morphological and molecular convergences in mammalian phylogenetics. Nat. Commun., 7: 12758. PDF Link

Oetjens MT, Shen F, Emery SB, Zou Z and Kidd JM. 2016. Y-Chromosome structural diversity in the bonobo and chimpanzee lineages. Genome Biol. Evol., 8: 2231-2240. PDF Link

Zou Z, and Zhang J. 2015. Are convergent and parallel amino acid substitutions in protein evolution more prevalent than neutral expectations? Mol. Biol. Evol., 32: 2085-2096. PDF Link
(recommended in F1000Prime)

Zou Z, and Zhang J. 2015. No genome-wide convergence for echolocation. Mol. Biol. Evol., 32: 1237-1241. PDF Link

Zou Z-T, Uphyrkina O, Fomenko P, Luo S-J. 2015. The development and application of a multiplex short tandem repeat (STR) system for identifying subspecies, individuals and sex in tigers. Integr. Zool., 10: 376-388. PDF Link

Xu X, Dong G-X, Hu X-S, Miao L, Zhang X-L, Zhang D-L, Yang H-D, Zhang T-Y, Zou Z-T, Zhang T-T, Zhuang Y, Bhak J, Cho YS, Dai W-T, Jiang T-J, Xie C, Li R-Q, Luo S-J. 2013. The genetic basis of white tigers. Curr. Biol., 23: 1031-1035. PDF Link

Seminars and Conferences

Invited Seminars

“Model-based genomic studies of protein sequence evolution: convergence, epistasis, and amino acid acceptance rates”, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, August 2017.

“Model-based genomic studies of protein sequence evolution”, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, August 2019.

Conference Presentations

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2014. “How prevalent are parallel amino acid substitutions in protein evolution?” Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Puerto Rico, June 2014. Poster presentation.

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2015. “Is convergence less common in protein sequences than morphological traits?” Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vienna, July 2015. Poster presentation.

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2016. “Morphological and molecular convergences in phylogenetic inference” Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Gold Coast, July 2016. Oral presentation.

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2016. “Morphological and molecular convergences in phylogenetic inference” The First Young Scientists Symposium on Evolution and Genetics, Kunming, July 2016. Invited speaker.

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2017. “Are nonsynonymous transversions more deleterious than nonsynonymous transitions?” Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Austin, July 2017. Poster presentation.

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2018. “Amino acid exchangeabilities vary across the tree of life.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Yokohama, July 2018. Poster presentation.

Zou Z, Zhang J. 2019. “Branch-site test of positive selection in the presence of multinucleotide mutations.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Manchester, July 2019. Poster presentation.

Memberships and Services

Member of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (2014 - ).

Ad hoc reviewer for:
Nature Communications,
Molecular Biology and Evolution,
Genome Biology and Evolution,
Journal of Heredity,
Journal of Molecular Evolution,
PLOS ONE,
BMC Plant Biology,
Frontiers in Zoology,
Philosophical Transactions B,
Current Genomics,
G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics,
National Science Review.

EEB “Outstanding Graduate Student Publication” Review Committee, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 2018

Social Activity

I am also a popular science writer in Chinese, on the topics of evolution, wildlife conservation and general biological researches.
Invited essays have been published on multiple media platforms such as "Plant and Animal Calendar" and "iScientist" of Guokr Inc.
My own individual media platform : Wechat subscription account "magic_bio".

Whale

Zhengting Zou - ztzou@umich



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