Dr. Huiting Zhang was trained as a molecular biologist during her undergrad research in Peking University in Beijing, China. She joined the lab of Dr. Claude dePamphilis at the Pennsylvania State University for her Ph.D. study. Her research focused on two major projects. One used a plant transformation and plant co-culture system to characterize “parasitism genes” identified by collaborators in the Parasitic Plant Genome Project. The other used transcriptomics, phylogenomics, and molecular evolution methods to study the evolution of cell wall genes in parasitic plants. Dr. Zhang will be working here in Wenatchee at the USDA Tree Fruit Research Lab as a PostDoc on a collaborative project with Dr. Loren Honaas (USDA, ARS) and Dr. Stephen Ficklin (WSU, Pullman) that aims to use functional genomics to learn about the genetic control of maturity in pome fruits.
