
Qi Zhang
Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine
About Qi Zhang
I am an Instructor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas, MD. Anderson Cancer Center. My research focus on the translation medicine, especially in apoptosis modulators (BCL-2 protein family inhibitors, degraders), and immune therapies.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Instructor, Department of Leukemia - Research, Division of Basic Science Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
2016 | Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, CHN, PHD, Hematology |
2010 | Qingdao University, Qingdao, CHN, MD, Clinical Medicine |
Postgraduate Training
2016-2019 | Research Fellowship, MD.Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX |
Honors & Awards
2019 | Endowed Fellowship Awards, The University of Texas MD. Anderson Cancer Center |
2018 | Abstract Award, American Society of Hematology |
2017 | Abstract Award, American Society of Hematology |
2016 | Abstract Award, American Society of Hematology |
2015 | Abstract Award, American Society of Hematology |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Dongwen Lv, Pratik Pal, Xingui Liu, Yannan Jia, Dinesh Thummuri, Peiyi Zhang, Wanyi Hu, Jing Pei, Qi Zhang, Shuo Zhou, Sajid Khan, Xuan Zhang, Nan Hua, Qingping Yang, Sebastian Arango, Weizhou Zhang, Digant Nayak, Shaun K Olsen, Susan T Weintraub, Robert Hromas, Marina Konopleva, Yaxia Yuan, Guangrong Zheng, Daohong Zhou. Development of a BCL-xL and BCL-2 dual degrader with improved anti-leukemic activity. Nature communications 12(1):1-14, 2021. PMID: 34824248.
- Lu Zhang, Tianyu Cai, Xiaoyu Lin, Xiaoli Huang, Mai H Bui, Joshua P Plotnik, Richard J Bellin, Emily J Faivre, Vinitha M Kuruvilla, Lloyd T Lam, Xin Lu, Zheng Zha, Weiguo Feng, Paul Hessler, Tamar Uziel, Qi Zhang, Antonio Cavazos, Lina Han, Debra C Ferguson, Gaurav Mehta, Sriram S Shanmugavelandy, Terrance J Magoc, Jenny Rowe, Neal C Goodwin, Kathleen A Dorritie, Michael Boyiadzis, Daniel H Albert, Keith F McDaniel, Warren M Kati, Marina Konopleva, Yu Shen. Selective inhibition of the second bromodomain of BET family proteins results in robust antitumor activity in preclinical models of acute myeloid leukemia. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 20(10):1809-1819, 2021. PMID: 34253595.
- Saito K, Zhang Q, Yang H, Yamatani K, Ai T, Ruvolo V, Baran N, Cai T, Ma H, Jacamo R, Kuruvilla V, Imoto J, Kinjo S, Ikeo K, Moriya K, Suzuki K, Miida T, Kim YM, Vellano CP, Andreeff M, Marszalek JR, Tabe Y, Konopleva M. Exogenous mitochondrial transfer and endogenous mitochondrial fission facilitate AML resistance to OxPhos inhibition. Blood Adv 5(20):4233-4255, 2021. PMID: 34507353.
- Raghuveer Singh Mali, Qi Zhang, Rosa Anna DeFilippis, Antonio Cavazos, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Jayant Raman, Vidhi Mody, Edna F Choo, Monique Dail, Neil P Shah, Marina Konopleva, Deepak Sampath, Elisabeth A Lasater. Venetoclax combines synergistically with FLT3 inhibition to effectively target leukemic cells in FLT3-ITD+ acute myeloid leukemia models. Haematologica 106(4):1034, 2021.
- Phillips DC, Jin S, Gregory GP, Zhang Q, Xue J, Zhao X, Chen J, Tong Y, Zhang H, Smith M, Tahir SK, Clark RF, Penning TD, Devlin JR, Shortt J, Hsi ED, Albert DH, Konopleva M, Johnstone RW, Leverson JD, Souers AJ. A novel CDK9 inhibitor increases the efficacy of venetoclax (ABT-199) in multiple models of hematologic malignancies. Leukemia 34(6):1646-1657, 2020. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31827241.
- Maiti A, Rausch CR, Cortes JE, Pemmaraju N, Daver NG, Ravandi F, Garcia-Manero G, Borthakur G, Naqvi K, Ohanian M, Short NJ, Alvarado Y, Kadia TM, Takahashi K, Yilmaz M, Jain N, Kornblau S, Montalban Bravo G, Sasaki K, Andreeff M, Bose P, Ferrajoli A, Issa GC, Jabbour EJ, Masarova L, Thompson PA, Wang S, Konoplev S, Pierce SA, Ning J, Qiao W, Welch JS, Kantarjian HM, DiNardo CD, Konopleva MY. Outcomes of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia after frontline hypomethylating agent and venetoclax regimens. Haematologica. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32499238.
- Mali RS, Zhang Q, DeFilippis R, Cavazos A, Kuruvilla VM, Raman J, Mody V, Choo EF, Dail M, Shah NP, Konopleva M, Sampath D, Lasater EA. Venetoclax combines synergistically with FLT3 inhibition to effectively target leukemic cells in FLT3-ITD+ acute myeloid leukemia models. Haematologica. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32414851.
- Han L, Zhang Q, Dail M, Shi C, Cavazos A, Ruvolo VR, Zhao Y, Kim E, Rahmani M, Mak DH, Jin SS, Chen J, Phillips DC, Koller PB, Jacamo R, Burks JK, DiNardo C, Daver N, Jabbour E, Wang J, Kantarjian HM, Andreeff M, Grant S, Leverson JD, Sampath D, Konopleva M. Concomitant targeting of BCL2 with venetoclax and MAPK signaling with cobimetinib in acute myeloid leukemia models. Haematologica 105(3):697-707, 2020. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31123034.
- Khan S, Zhang X, Lv D, Zhang Q, He Y, Zhang P, Liu X, Thummuri D, Yuan Y, Wiegand JS, Pei J, Zhang W, Sharma A, McCurdy CR, Kuruvilla VM, Baran N, Ferrando AA, Kim YM, Rogojina A, Houghton PJ, Huang G, Hromas R, Konopleva M, Zheng G, Zhou D. A selective BCL-XL PROTAC degrader achieves safe and potent antitumor activity. Nat Med 25(12):1938-1947, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31792461.
- Molina JR, Sun Y, Protopopova M, Gera S, Bandi M, Bristow C, McAfoos T, Morlacchi P, Ackroyd J, Agip AA, Al-Atrash G, Asara J, Bardenhagen J, Carrillo CC, Carroll C, Chang E, Ciurea S, Cross JB, Czako B, Deem A, Daver N, de Groot JF, Dong JW, Feng N, Gao G, Gay J, Do MG, Greer J, Giuliani V, Han J, Han L, Henry VK, Hirst J, Huang S, Jiang Y, Kang Z, Khor T, Konoplev S, Lin YH, Liu G, Lodi A, Lofton T, Ma H, Mahendra M, Matre P, Mullinax R, Peoples M, Petrocchi A, Rodriguez-Canale J, Serreli R, Shi T, Smith M, Tabe Y, Theroff J, Tiziani S, Xu Q, Zhang Q, Muller F, DePinho RA, Toniatti C, Draetta GF, Heffernan TP, Konopleva M, Jones P, Di Francesco ME, Marszalek JR. An inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation exploits cancer vulnerability. Nat Med 24(7):1036-1046, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29892070.
- Jiang X, Mak PY, Mu H, Tao W, Mak DH, Kornblau S, Zhang Q, Ruvolo P, Burks JK, Zhang W, McQueen T, Pan R, Zhou H, Konopleva M, Cortes J, Liu Q, Andreeff M, Carter BZ. Disruption of Wnt/β-Catenin Exerts Antileukemia Activity and Synergizes with FLT3 Inhibition in FLT3-Mutant Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Clin Cancer Res 24(10):2417-2429, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29463558.
- Zhang Q, Shi C, Han L, Jain N, Roberts KG, Ma H, Cai T, Cavazos A, Tabe Y, Jacamo RO, Mu H, Zhao Y, Wang J, Wu SC, Cao F, Zeng Z, Zhou J, Mi Y, Jabbour EJ, Levine R, Tasian SK, Mullighan CG, Weinstock DM, Fruman DA, Konopleva M. Inhibition of mTORC1/C2 signaling improves anti-leukemia efficacy of JAK/STAT blockade in CRLF2 rearranged and/or JAK driven Philadelphia chromosome-like acute B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia. Oncotarget 9(8):8027-8041, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29487712.
- Yuan T, Yang Y, Chen J, Li W, Li W, Zhang Q, Mi Y, Goswami RS, You JQ, Lin D, Qian MD, Calin S, Liang Y, Miranda RN, Calin GA, Zhou X, Ma L, Zweidler-McKay PA, Liu B, Weng AP, Medeiros LJ, Zhang Y, You MJ. Regulation of PI3K signaling in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a novel PTEN/Ikaros/miR-26b mechanism reveals a critical targetable role for PIK3CD. Leukemia 31(11):2355-2364, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28280276.
- Zhang L, Li Y, Li X, Zhang Q, Qiu S, Zhang Q, Wang M, Xing H, Rao Q, Tian Z, Tang K, Wang J, Mi Y. Regulation of HtrA2 on WT1 gene expression under imatinib stimulation and its effects on the cell biology of K562 cells. Oncol Lett 14(3):3862-3868, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28927158.
- Han L, Jorgensen JL, Brooks C, Shi C, Zhang Q, Nogueras González GM, Cavazos A, Pan R, Mu H, Wang SA, Zhou J, Ai-Atrash G, Ciurea SO, Rettig M, DiPersio JF, Cortes J, Huang X, Kantarjian HM, Andreeff M, Ravandi F, Konopleva M. Antileukemia Efficacy and Mechanisms of Action of SL-101, a Novel Anti-CD123 Antibody Conjugate, in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Clin Cancer Res 23(13):3385-3395, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28096272.
- Fang Q, Zhao X, Li Q, Li Y, Liu K, Tang K, Wang Y, Liu B, Wang M, Xing H, Rao Q, Tian Z, Wang J, Mi Y. IKZF1 alterations and expression of CRLF2 predict prognosis in adult Chinese patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leuk Lymphoma 58(1):127-137, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27157479.
- Zeng Z, Wang RY, Qiu YH, Mak DH, Coombes K, Yoo SY, Zhang Q, Jessen K, Liu Y, Rommel C, Fruman DA, Kantarjian HM, Kornblau SM, Andreeff M, Konopleva M. MLN0128, a novel mTOR kinase inhibitor, disrupts survival signaling and triggers apoptosis in AML and AML stem/ progenitor cells. Oncotarget 7(34):55083-55097, 2016. PMID: 27391151.
- Zhang Q, Zhang Q, Li Q, Liu B, Wang Y, Lin D, Zhou C, Li W, Tang K, Tian Z, Wang M, Wang J, Mi Y. Monitoring of WT1 and its target gene IRF8 expression in acute myeloid leukemia and their significance. Int J Lab Hematol 37(4):e67-71, 2015. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25387409.
- Zhang Q, Liu KQ, Liu BC, Zhou CL, Li W, Lin D, Wang Y, Mi YC, Wang JX. [Analysis of tumor lysis syndrome in 380 cases of acute leukemia]. Zhongguo Shi Yan Xue Ye Xue Za Zhi 23(1):61-4, 2015. PMID: 25687047.
Abstracts
- Yannan Jia, Qi Zhang, Connie Weng, Cassandra L Ramage, Yuki Nishida, Mark Chao, Roy Louis Maute, Shelley Herbrich, Weiguo Zhang, Michael Andreeff, Naval Daver, Marina Konopleva. Combined Blockade of CD47-Sirpa Interaction By 5F9 (Magrolimab) and Azacitidine/Venetoclax Therapy Facilitates Macrophage-Mediated Anti-Leukemia Efficacy in AML Pre-Clinical Models. Blood 138:510, 2021. e-Pub 2021.
- Anna Skwarska, Donia M Moujalled, Paul F Panis, Shraddha Patel, Qi Zhang, Shelley Herbrich, Vinitha Kurvilla, Natalia Baran, Giovanna Pomilio, Ensar Halilovic, Prakash Mistry, Vivian Ruvolo, Peter P Ruvolo, Alix Derréal, Sebastien Banquet, Magdalena Niemira, Adam Kretowski, Naval Daver, Michael Andreeff, Andrew H Wei, Marina Konopleva. Combination Therapy of FLT3 Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and BH3 Mimetics Targeting Antiapoptotic MCL-1 Synergistically Eliminates FLT3-ITD Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells in Vitro and In Vivo. Blood 138:2248, 2021.
- Yannan Jia, Qi Zhang, Weiguo Zhang, Michael Andreeff, Nitin Jain, Peiyi Zhang, Guangrong Zheng, Daohong Zhou, Marina Konopleva. Targeting BCL-XL and BCL-2 By Protac 753B Effectively Eliminates AML Cells and Enhances Efficacy of Chemotherapy By Targeting Senescent Cells. Blood 138:2230, 2021.
- Vinitha Kuruvilla, Rebecca McCarthy, Qi Zhang, Krystal Watkins, Sharlene Adams, Callum Sloss, Patrick Zweidler-McKay, Angela Romanelli, Marina Konopleva. IMGN632, a CD123-Targeting ADC Bearing a DNA-Alkylating IGN Payload, Combines Effectively as a Triplet Regimen with Azacitidine and Venetoclax In Vivo, Prolonging Survival in Preclinical Models of Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia 20:S208-S209, 2020.
- Anudishi Tyagi, Bin Yuan, Stanley Ly, Fouad El-Dana, Vinitha Kuruvilla, Qi Zhang, Xin Zhou, Benoit deCrombrugghe, Marina Konopleva, Michael Andreeff, Venkata Lokesh Battula. Osteoprogenitor Cells, but Not Mature Osteoblasts/Osteocytes that Support AML Growth in the Bone Marrow Microenvironment. Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia 20:S195, 2020.
- DiNardo CD, Tiong IS, Quaglieri A, MacRaild S, Loghavi S, Brown FC, Thijssen R, Pomilio G, Ivey A, Salmon JM, Glytsou C, Fleming SA, Zhang Q, Ma H, Patel KP, Kornblau SM, Xu Z, Chua CC, Chen X, Blombery P, Flensburg C, Cummings N, Aifantis I, Kantarjian H, Huang DCS, Roberts AW, Majewski IJ, Konopleva M, Wei AH. Molecular patterns of response and treatment failure after frontline venetoclax combinations in older patients with AML. Blood 135(11):791-803, 2020. PMID: 31932844.
- DiNardo CD, Tiong IS, Quaglieri A, MacRaild S, Loghavi S, Brown FC, Thijssen R, Pomilio G, Ivey A, Salmon JM, Glytsou C, Fleming SA, Zhang Q, Ma H, Patel KP, Kornblau SM, Xu Z, Chua CC, Chen X, Blombery P, Flensburg C, Cummings N, Aifantis I, Kantarjian H, Huang DCS, Roberts AW, Majewski IJ, Konopleva M, Wei AH. Molecular patterns of response and treatment failure after frontline venetoclax combinations in older patients with AML. Blood 135(11):791-803, 2020. PMID: 31932844.
- Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Rebecca McCarthy, Qi Zhang, Callum M Sloss, Patrick A Zweidler-McKay, Angela Romanelli, Sharlene Adams, Marina Y Konopleva. IMGN632, a CD123-Alkylating ADC Bearing a DNA-Alkylating IGN Payload, Combines Effectively with Azacitidine and Venetoclax In Vivo, Prolonging Survival in Preclinical Models of Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Blood 134(Supplement_1):1375-1375, 2019.
- Bing Z Carter, Wenjing Tao, Po Yee Mak, Qi Zhang, Xiangmeng Wang, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Carli Stewart, Vivian Ruvolo, Venkata Lokesh Battula, Marina Y Konopleva, Sean Caenepeel, Jude Canon, Paul Hughes, PK Morrow, Michael Andreeff. Inhibition of mcl-1 enhances the efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibition in FLT3 mutated AML and synergizes with venetoclax targeting AML stem cells. Blood 134(Supplement_1):1267, 2019.
- Zhihong Zeng, Natalia Baran, Sergej Konoplev, Antonio Cavazos, Qi Zhang, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Philip Lorenzi, Hagop M Kantarjian, Michael Andreeff, Courtney D DiNardo, Joshua Murtie, Danielle Ulanet, Marina Y Konopleva. Targeting DHODH with AG-636 Induces Apoptosis and Differentiation and Inhibits Mitochondrial Function in AML, Translating into Anti-Tumor Efficacy in Vitro and in Vivo. Blood 134(Supplement_1):3911, 2019.
- Haeun Yang, Yoko Tabe, Kaori Saito, Kotoko Yamatani, Rodrigo Jacamo, Helen Ma, Vivian Ruvolo, Qi Zhang, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Natalia Baran, Junichi Imoto, Kazuho Ikeo, Kaori Moriya, Yuko Murakami-Tonami, Koya Suzuki, Takashi Miida, Michael Andreeff, Christopher P Vellano, Joseph Marszalek, Marina Y Konopleva. Oxphos Inhibition Induces Formation of Tunneling Nanotubes in AML Cells and Facilitates Mitochondrial Transfer from BM Stroma to AML That Contributes to Microenvironment-Mediated Drug-Resistance of AML. Blood 134(Supplement_1):911, 2019.
- Tianyu Cai, Kathryn L Black, Ammar S Naqvi, Deanne Taylor, Ming Zhao, Qi Yuan, Mayumi Sugita, Roman Galetto, Agnès Gouble, Julianne NP Smith, Antonio Cavazos, Lina Han, Qi Zhang, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Helen Ma, Sergej Konoplev, Guilin Tang, Jun Gu, Xiaoping Su, Sattva S Neelapu, Andrew A Lane, Hagop M Kantarjian, Monica L Guzman, Naveen Pemmaraju, Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko, Marina Y Konopleva. Efficacy Proof of Concept for Allogeneic CD123 Targeting CAR T-Cells Against Primary Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm (BPDCN): Efficient Control of Tumor Progression in PDX Model and Potential Loss of CD123 Expression in Relapsed Disease. Blood 134(Supplement_1):2659, 2019.
- Abhishek Maiti, Courtney D DiNardo, Caitlin R Rausch, Jorge E Cortes, Naveen Pemmaraju, Naval G Daver, Farhad Ravandi, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Gautam M Borthakur, Kiran Naqvi, Maro N Ohanian, Nicholas J Short, Yesid Alvarado, Christopher B Benton, Tapan M Kadia, Koichi Takahashi, Musa E Yilmaz, Nitin Jain, Steven M Kornblau, Koji Sasaki, Michael Andreeff, Prithviraj Bose, Alessandra Ferrajoli, Ghayas C Issa, Elias Jabbour, Lucia Masarova, Michael E Rytting, Philip A Thompson, Sa A Wang, Sergej Konoplev, Zhining Chen, Maitrayee Goswami, Rita Maduike, Julio A Guerrero, Qi Zhang, Antonio Cavazos, Helen Ma, Carol A Bivins, Allison Wade, Shadiat L Adewale, Susan Tse, Robin Thomas, Kenneth Vaughan, Sherry A Pierce, Jing Ning, Wei Qiao, John S Welch, Hagop M Kantarjian, Marina Y Konopleva. Ten-day decitabine with venetoclax (DEC10-VEN) in acute myeloid leukemia: updated results of a phase II trial. Blood 134(ue Supplement_1):2637, 2019.
- Qi Zhang, Sajid Khan, Xuan Zhang, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Sanaz Ghotbaldini, Julia Wells, Natalia Baran, Tianyu Cai, Lina Han, Adolfo Ferrando, Yong-Mi Kim, Guangrong Zheng, Daohong Zhou, Marina Y Konopleva. Targeting BCL-XL By Protac DT2216 Effectively Eliminates Leukemia Cells in T-ALL Pre-Clinical Models. Blood 134(Supplement_1):3870, 2019.
- Qi Zhang, Alessia Lodi, Shannon Renee Sweeney, Lina Han, Tianyu Cai, Vinitha Mary Kuruvilla, Antonio Cavazos, Helen Ma, Yoko Tabe, Joseph R Marszalek, Stefano Tiziani, Marina Y Konopleva. Inhibiting Mitochondria Function By Bcl-2 Inhibitor Venetoclax and Complex I Inhibitor Iacs-010759 Eliminate Leukemia Cells in Pre-Clinical AML Models. Blood 134(Supplement_1):3927, 2019.
Grant & Contract Support
Title: | SPORE in Leukemia Project 5: Targeting Oxidative Phosphorylation in AML |
Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
Role: | Postdoctoral Fellow |
Title: | Inhibition of Bcl-xl by Targeted Degradation |
Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
Role: | Co-Investigator |
Title: | Blockade of CD47-SIRPa Interaction By Magrolimab combined with Venetoclax /Azacitidine (VEN/AZA) Therapy in AML Pre-Clinical Models |
Funding Source: | UTMDACC Leukemia SPORE Career Enhancement Program |
Role: | Principal Investigator |