Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Department Chair, University of Kansas Medical Center , Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Dr. Zheng is Russell J. Eilers MD Endowed Professor and Department Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at The University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Zheng completed his medical degree at Nanchang University, China and PhD at University of Vienna, Austria. Following his residency in Pathology and fellowship in Transfusion Medicine and Hemostasis at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Zheng took his first faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. He quickly rose to the rank of tenured Associate Professor. Dr. Zheng was recruited to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he served the Division Director of Laboratory Medicine and attended transfusion medicine service in the Department of Pathology. In early 2020, Dr. Zheng was named the department chair and service chief in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas.
Dr. Zheng's passion has been in providing high-quality patient care, supporting medical and graduate education, and fostering innovative research. Dr. Zheng's research focuses on pathogenesis of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a potentially fatal blood disorder. Dr. Zheng and his colleagues have published more than 125 manuscripts in high-profile and peer-reviewed journals and 6 book chapters. Additionally, Dr. Zheng is the standing member of Hemostasis, Thrombosis, and Blood Transfusion (HTBT) study section at the National Institute of Health, associate editors for Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis and Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Zheng has mentored three dozen of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, and physician scientists.

Dr. Zheng's laboratory has been interested in studying the mechanism of normal and abnormal blood coagulation, specifically the pathogenesis and novel therapeutics of immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP). iTTP is a potential fatal blood disorder, resulting from severe deficiency of a plasma ADAMTS13 protease important for proteolytic cleavage of endothelial von Willebrand factor (VWF). Such as cleavage is essential for normal hemostasis. Deficiency of such a protease results in uncontrolled platelet adhesion and aggregation, leading to thrombosis throughout the body. Patients with such a condition is universally fatal unless being treated immediately with plasma exchange that remove autoantibodies and replenish ADAMTS13.