Liwei Zhang - Biography#

Professor Liwei Zhang, M.D. Director of Neurosurgery Department and Vice President of Beijing Tiantan Hospital;

Doctoral Supervisor of Beijing Capital Medical University and Tsinghua University; Associate Director of the National Centre for Clinical Medicine of Neurological Diseases of China; Chairman of the Chinese Congress of Neurological Surgeons under the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; Committee member of World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies; Chief of Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Tumor Research; Expert Member of the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Associate Editor of the Chinese Journal of Neurosurgery, Chief Editor of Neuro-oncology of Neurosurgery (Chinese edition).

Relevant projects of note include various research studies under National Science & Technology Pillar Program at national, provincial and ministerial levels with a total research fund of more than 40 millon RMB. As the first contributor, he has led the team to a National Science and Technology Progress Award of China and 8 scientific and technological awards at the provincial and ministerial level. As a professor, he has supervised more than 30 Master’s and Doctoral students.

Contributions made towards the research and clinical application of key techniques for diagnosis and treatment of skull-based and brainstem tumors include:

• Led the setup of the National Brain Tumor Registry of China (NBTRC) and the collaborative research network for brain tumors. As of February of 2021, all high-quality clinical data of more than 110,000 patients with brain tumors were registered on NBTRC, making it the second largest brain tumor clinical database in the world. The vast high-quality data is being used for brain health and brain function researches both in China and worldwide. One commentary on NBTRC was published in the journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and one research protocol in BMJ Open.
  
• Established the Multi-disciplinary Cooperation System for Skull-based Tumors in China.
  
• Organized and implemented the Chinese Expert Consensus on Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment of Acoustic Neuroma and Chinese Expert Consensus on Comprehensive Diagnosis and Treatment of Brainstem Glioma.
  
• Compiled Explanations of Clinical Technical Path for the Chinese Health Ministry.
  
• Achieved breakthroughs in the field of brainstem glioma research. Examples include the identification of somatic gain-of-function PPM1D mutations of brainstem glioma and other genetic mutation; immune features of malignant brain tumors; successfully building up patient-derived DIPG cells with the preservation of stem-like characteristics from which orthotopic tumors are generated; identifying deep sequencing of CSF ctDNA as a reliable technique for detecting tumor-specific alterations in brainstem tumors, with this latter approach offering an alternative to stereotactic biopsy for molecular profiling of brainstem tumors.
  
• Published more than 160 scientific research papers in internationally recognized academic journals, such as Nature Genetics and Acta Neuropathologica, with highest influencing factor of 35. As the editor in chief, he has published 9 professional monographs.