Prof Guo-Jun Zhang obtained his doctor's degree in Fukushima Medical University in 1999. Then he served as a postdoctoral researcher at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States from 1999 to 2004. From 2005 to 2008, he took the senior scientist in Merck Research Laboratory of Merck & Co, USA. In August 2008, he returned to China as the Director of Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical School and the Director of Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer in Guangdong Province. In April 2017, he moved to Xiamen University to be in charge of the establishment of affiliated Xiang'an Hospital, and was appointed as its Executive Director, Director of the Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center and Head of the Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery.

He is the first Professor of Changjiang Scholarship Program in the field of molecular imaging in China, the Leading Talent of National Special Support Plan and the national candidate of New century Talents Project. He is also the Vice Chairman of Molecular Imaging Committee of Chinese Biophysics Society, the international Deputy Editor of Molecular Imaging and Biology and the Chief Editor of Journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.

Prof Zhang has presided over more than ten projects, including 973 sub-project, major research projects and major international (regional) cooperation projects of NSFC, etc, with a total funding of more than 20 million. He has published over 140 high-quality papers (SCI-listed papers 96, total IF over 400, total cited near 3000), and was the chief / co- editor of 7 monographs or textbooks. He has attained 2 invention patent and 5 science and technology awards, and has cultivated more than 60 doctoral and master students, 2 outbound postdoctoral students and 2 inbound foreign postdoctoral students.

He has more than 30 years of scientific research experiences and made great achievements and contributions, especially in the field of mechanism about genesis, development and metastasis of breast cancer, epidemiology of familial breast cancer, and breast cancer precision surgery.

• Systematic study of the effect and molecular mechanism of Notch3-centered signal transduction pathway on the genesis, development and metastasis of breast cancer. Notch3 inhibits epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) by regulating many factors, such as ERα, Hippo / YAP and GATA3. Notch3 is also regulated by upstream factors such as Id2 and miR-221 / 222. This is the first time to confirm the role as tumor suppressor of Notch3 in breast cancer, especially in luminal breast cancer. This is also the unique role of Notch3 in breast cancer, which is different from in other malignant tumors. These results initially solved the controversy about the function of Notch3.

• Establishment of visual report systems of cell cycle and EMT process. The S phase reporter Cyclin A2-Luc was established by using fusion protein technology to monitor the therapeutic effects of S phase-targeted drugs, such as 10-Hydroxycamptothecin in vitro and in small animals. At the same time, a reporter was constructed to monitor the expression level of miR-200c, a molecular marker of EMT, which can track the genesis, development, invasion and metastasis of tumor, and provide an effective platform for screening drugs for inhibiting tumor invasion and metastasis.

• The first reported application in China of indocyanine green (ICG) in sentinel lymph node biopsy and tumor margin delineation guided by near-infrared fluorescence technology. It was found that the detection ratio of sentinel lymph nodes and axillary lymph node-positive patients were significantly higher than that of blue dye method, and the false negative rate was lower, the visibility and safety were higher, which solved the long-standing technological bottlenecks of sentinel lymph node biopsy in China. Meanwhile, above technology performed precise tumor margin delineation in preliminary clinical trials.

Selected publications

1. Zhang GJ, Kimijima I, Abe R, Kanno M, Katagata N, Hara K, Watanabe T, and Tsuchiya A. Correlation between the Expression of Apoptosis-related bcl-2 and p53 Oncoproteins and the Carcinogenesis and Progression of Breast Carcinomas. Clinical Cancer Research, 1997, 3 (12):2329-35.

2. Zhang GJ, Kimijima I, Fukushima T, Sato H, Kanno M, Tsuchiya A, Abe R. Tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells relates to down-regulation of bcl-2, but not bax and bcl-XL, without alteration of p53 Protein levels. Clinical Cancer Research, 1999, 5(10):2971-7.

3. Zhang GJ, Safran M, Wei W, Sorensen E, Lassota P, Shapiro G, Zhelev N, Kaelin Jr WG. Bioluminescent imaging of CDK2 inhibition in vivo. Nature Medicine, 2004, 10:643-8.

4. Wei W, Ayad NG, Wan Y, Zhang GJ, MW Kirschcner, Kaelin Jr WG. Degradation of the SCF component Skp2 in cell-cycle phase G1 by the anaphase-promoting complex. Nature, 2004, 428:194-8.

5. Zhang GJ, Chen TB, Hargreaves R, Sur C, Williams Jr DL. Bioluminescence imaging of hollow fibers in living animals: its application in monitoring molecular pathways. Nature Protocols, 2008, 3(5):891-9.

6. Liu J, Shen JX, Hu JL, Huang WH and Zhang GJ. Significance of interleukin-33 and its related cytokines in patients with breast cancers. Frontiers in Immunology, 2014, 5:141.

7. Wei XL, Chen CF, Xi DD, Bai JW, Huang WH, Luoxiang Rong LX, Wu MY, Zhang GJ. A case of primary neuroendocrine breast carcinoma that responded to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. Frontiers of Medicine, 2015, 9(1):112-6.

8. Dou XW, Liang YK, Lin HY, Wei XL, Zhang YQ, Bai JW, Chen CF, Chen M, Du CW, Li YC, Tian J, Man K, GJ Zhang. Notch3 Maintains Luminal Phenotype and Suppresses Tumorigenesis and Metastasis of Breast Cancer via Trans-Activating Estrogen Receptor-α, Theranostics, 2017, 7(16):4041-56.

9. Liang YK, Zeng D, Xiao YS, Wu Y, Ouyang YX, Chen M, Li YC, Lin HY, Wei XL, Zhang YQ, Kruyt FAE, Zhang GJ. MCAM/CD146 promotes tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer cells through induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, decreased ER alpha expression and AKT activation, Cancer Letters, 2017, 386: 65-76.

10. Xiao YS, Zeng D, Liang YK, Wu Y, Li MF, Qi YZ, Wei XL, Huang WH, Chen M, Zhang GJ. Major vault protein is a direct target of Notch1 signaling and contributes to chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer cells. Cancer Letters, 2019, 440-441: 156-67.