Dr. Zhang’s career goal is to become a world-leading scientist in the field of cancer biomarker and cancer immunodiagnosis. He is currently focusing his research on the identification, characterization, and evaluation of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) as biomarkers in cancer detection, and he has expertise in the molecular, immunological, and proteomic approaches proposed in the field of cancer biomarker research. Research in Dr. Zhang’s laboratory mainly focuses on two projects. 1) Identification and characterization of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) as diagnostic markers in human cancer, particularly in liver cancer. Overall goal of the lab is to determine whether a mini-array of multiple TAAs would enhance antibody detection that would be useful non-invasive approach for the early detection of human liver cancer. The expected results from the project will contribute to the reduction of disparities associated with the mortality of liver cancer, which disproportionately affects Hispanic communities, particularly in the El Paso region. 2) Functional study of tumor-associated proteins p62 and p90 in cancer. In this study, functional characterization of two oncoproteins p62 and p90 in breast and lung cancer cell lines have been performed using either gene knock-down or gene overexpression approaches. Preliminary results demonstrated that both oncoproteins p62 and p90 may play important roles in cell proliferation and cancer development.