John H. Zhang, MD, PhD

Professor, Basic Sciences, Neurosurgery, Anesthesiology, Neurology and Pathology and Human Anatomy, Vice Chair, Basic Sciences, Physiology Division, Loma Linda University Medical Center

Dr. Zhang attended medical school at Chongqing University of Medical Sciences in Chongqing China. He completed a neurology residency and did two years postdoctoral research training in Beijing Neurosurgical Institute. He then completed a graduate student program under Drs. David Cook and Bryce Weir and obtained a Ph.D. in the study of cerebrovascular diseases at the University of Alberta Medical Center in Edmonton Canada. He finished his postdoctoral training in Physiology & Pharmacology at the McMaster University under Dr. Ed Daniel in Hamilton Canada. He was an Assistant Professor of Surgery (research) at the University of Chicago and later a Research Scientist and Head of Biochemical Pharmacology Department at the Deborah Research Institute in New Jersey. Dr. Zhang became an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, and Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and was the Director of Research in the Research Division from 1997-2001. Dr. Zhang was appointed as the Schumpert Endowed Medical Center Chair in Neurosciences, Vice-Chairman and Director of Neuroscience Research, Professor of Neurosurgery, Professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, and Professor of Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the Louisiana State University Health Science Center at Shreveport before joining the faculty at Loma Linda University at the summer of 2004.

Currently, Dr. Zhang heads the Zhang Neuroscience Reseach Labortory at Loma Linda University Medical Center. The main research direction in the Zhang Laboratory is focused on the ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, as well as global cerebral ischemia, neonatal hypoxia, and neurological complications of neurosurgery and anesthesia. Animal models of above mentioned neurological disorders are currently employed in the studies of cerebral physiology including blood-brain barrier, brain edema, cerebral blood flow and intracranial pressure, cerebral morphology, especially immunohistochemistry, molecular biology, neuro-imaging, neurological and neurobehavioral functional testing. The main focus of research interests is cerebral vascular biology, neuroprotective strategies, gene therapy, signaling pathways, apoptosis, and hyperbaric medicine.