Hui-Jian Zhang, M.D.

Director of Islet Quality Control Laboratories

Dr. Hui-Jian Zhang is an endocrinologist who has many years of experience in medical research.  She coordinated the activities of the core laboratory of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism for 11 years before joining the Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation (DIIT).  She has exceptional experience in islet isolation, islet culture and quality control.  She has conducted and supervised biological experiments to evaluate islet function and quality.  She assists investigators in the comprehensive analysis of quality control data pertaining to human islet isolation and in the analysis of the posttransplant metabolic outcomes of transplant recipients.

Since she first came to the DIIT in 1997, Dr. Zhang has made extraordinary contributions to the work of the islet preparation core.  When she first joined the DIIT, the islet isolation team was struggling, without success, to isolate islets from pigs.  In less than a month, Dr. Zhang improved the isolation technique and successfully led the team to isolate pig islets.  Since then, this technique has led to continued success and has received national and world recognition.  In addition, her management of and dedication to the islet isolation team has helped to produce remarkable success in islet isolation and transplantation.

Dr. Zhang has also refined the human islet isolation and transplantation protocols.  Furthermore, she has established and expedited islet product assessment processes that allow the DIIT to report test results in less than 24 hours after islet isolation and before the transplantation is performed.

In addition to her research work, Dr. Zhang has dedicated her time to train visiting fellows and technicians on the Islet Processsing Team and she has supervised them in their research projects.  Both the fellows and technicians have played an important role in the achievements of the islet transplantation program.  Her supervision has also helped to improve the efficiency and productivity of their work.