MUSMedical University of South Carolina · Pharmacology
Alcohol and Mitochondrial Health Lab
Zhi Zhong · Charleston, South Carolina
Research Focus
Zhi Zhong's lab at the Medical University of South Carolina focuses on understanding how alcohol affects liver function, particularly through processes involving mitochondria, the energy-producing parts of cells. They are researching how the liver responds to alcohol consumption and the resulting harm, which can lead to serious conditions like fibrosis and cirrhosis. By studying how mitochondrial health is affected by alcohol, their goal is to develop new treatments for alcohol-related liver diseases.
alcohol-associated liver diseasemitochondrial depolarizationmitophagyhepatic fibrosiscollagenstellate cellsmtDNANADH oxidationacute liver injurytherapeutics
Research Aims
3AIM 01Investigate the mechanisms of onset and recovery from alcohol-induced mitochondrial depolarization.
AIM 02Characterize the process of mitophagy after ethanol treatment.
AIM 03Determine how mitochondrial damage-associated molecular patterns elicit responses in stellate cells leading to fibrosis.
Skills the Lab Values
cell culturein vivo modelsmolecular biology techniquesWestern blotfluorescence microscopyRNA extractionPCRanimal handlingsignal transduction assaysgene editing with CRISPR
Output against the department
Publications201top 44% of dept.202nd of 462
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations4.8kbottom 35% of dept.298th of 462
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.