The research activities in the Zhang laboratory have two major focuses.  The one is to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the uterine vascular adaptation to pregnancy and chronic hypoxia. These studies are to test the hypothesis that chronic hypoxia during gestation causes maladaptation of steroid hormone receptor gene expression patterns in the uterine artery through enhanced promoter methylation resulting in heightened myogenic response of the uterine artery in pregnancy.  The other area of research interests is to study fetal epigenetic programming of gene expression patterns caused by adverse intrauterine environments, which is essential in explaining many fundamental biological processes by which a variety of cardiovascular dysfunctions and disease emerge and evolve.  The lab is interested in the assessments of molecular mechanisms of DNA methylation in epigenetic programming of gene expression patterns in the developing heart, and the role of sex and sex-defining steroids in determining an “ischemia-sensitive” phenotype in the heart.   
 
Source: https://medicine.llu.edu/research/department-basic-sciences/division-pharmacology/faculty/lubo-zhang-phd