Fan Zhang, PhD

Professional Titles

• Assistant Professor

Recognitions

• Arthritis Foundation, Uncovering dynamic immunophenotypes by developing novel AI methods to predict RA onset (2025)
• Arthritis National Research Foundation, Deciphering complement-dependent phagocytic myeloid phenotypes in human autoimmune arthritis using single-cell computational omics (2023)
• Translational Research Scholar Program (TRSP) CU School of Medicine, Using AI to elucidate novel pathogenic programs underlying chronic inflammatory diseases for precision medicine (2023)
• CU Orthopedics-Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) Dyads Award, Multi-Omics Integration with Machine Learning to Reveal Synovium Phenotypes in Ankle Osteoarthritis (2023)
• PhRMA Research Starter Grant, Deciphering shared inflammatory myeloid phenotypes between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and RA-associated interstitial lung disease by Computational Omics (2022)

Research Interests

We are a Computational Omics and Systems Immunology (COSI) lab https://fanzhanglab.org/ in the Department of Medicine Division of Rheumatology and the Department of the Biomedical Informatics Center for Health AI, University of Colorado Anschutz Campus. We develop and use computational machine learning methods, single-cell multi-omics, and systems immunology approaches to study immune-mediated diseases.

Publications

• Davidson NR, Zhang F, Greene CS. BuDDI: Bulk Deconvolution with Domain Invariance to predict cell-type-specific perturbations from bulk. PLoS Comput Biol. 2025 Jan;21(1):e1012742. PubMed PMID: 39823522
• Donado CA, Theisen E, Zhang F, Nathan A, Fairfield ML, Rupani KV, Jones D, Johannes KP, Raychaudhuri S, Dwyer DF, Jonsson AH, Brenner MB. Granzyme K activates the entire complement cascade. Nature. 2025 Feb 6. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 39914456
• Inamo J, Keegan J, Griffith A, Ghosh T, Horisberger A, Howard K, Pulford JF, Murzin E, Hancock B, Dominguez ST, Gurra MG, Gurajala S, Jonsson AH, Seifert JA, Feser ML, Norris JM, Cao Y, Apruzzese W, Bridges SL, Bykerk VP, Goodman S, Donlin LT, Firestein GS, Bathon JM, Hughes LB, Filer A, Pitzalis C, Anolik JH, Moreland L, Hacohen N, Guthridge JM, James JA, Cuda CM, Perlman H, Brenner MB, Raychaudhuri S, Sparks JA, Holers VM, Deane KD, Lederer J, Rao DA, Zhang F. Deep immunophenotyping reveals circulating activated lymphocytes in individuals at risk for rheumatoid arthritis. J Clin Invest. 2025 Mar 17;135(6). PubMed PMID: 40091833
• Guo N, Vargas J, Reynoso S, Fritz D, Krishna R, Wang C, Zhang F. Uncover spatially informed variations for single-cell spatial transcriptomics with STew. Bioinform Adv. 2024;4(1):vbae064. PubMed PMID: 38827413
• Kamiya M, Carter H, Espindola MS, Doyle TJ, Lee JS, Merriam LT, Zhang F, Kawano-Dourado L, Sparks JA, Hogaboam CM, Moore BB, Oldham WM, Kim EY. Immune mechanisms in fibrotic interstitial lung disease. Cell. 2024 Jul 11;187(14):3506-3530. PubMed PMID: 38996486
• Holers VM, Demoruelle KM, Buckner JH, James EA, Firestein GS, Robinson WH, Steere AC, Zhang F, Norris JM, Kuhn KA, Deane KD. Distinct mucosal endotypes as initiators and drivers of rheumatoid arthritis. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2024 Oct;20(10):601-613. PubMed PMID: 39251771
• Townsend HA, Rosenberger KJ, Vanderlinden LA, Inamo J, Zhang F. Evaluating methods for integrating single-cell data and genetics to understand inflammatory disease complexity. Front Immunol. 2024;15:1454263. PubMed PMID: 39703500
• Thomas T, Friedrich M, Rich-Griffin C, Pohin M, Agarwal D, Pakpoor J, Lee C, Tandon R, Rendek A, Aschenbrenner D, Jainarayanan A, Voda A, Siu JHY, Sanches-Peres R, Nee E, Sathananthan D, Kotliar D, Todd P, Kiourlappou M, Gartner L, Ilott N, Issa F, Hester J, Turner J, Nayar S, Mackerodt J, Zhang F, Jonsson A, Brenner M, Raychaudhuri S, Kulicke R, Ramsdell D, Stransky N, Pagliarini R, Bielecki P, Spies N, Marsden B, Taylor S, Wagner A, Klenerman P, Walsh A, Coles M, Jostins-Dean L, Powrie FM, Filer A, Travis S, Uhlig HH, Dendrou CA, Buckley CD. A longitudinal single-cell atlas of anti-tumour necrosis factor treatment in inflammatory bowel disease. Nat Immunol. 2024 Nov;25(11):2152-2165. PubMed PMID: 39438660
• Faust HJ, Cheng TY, Korsunsky I, Watts GFM, Gal-Oz ST, Trim WV, Kongthong S, Jonsson AH, Simmons DP, Zhang F, Padera R, Chubinskaya S, Wei K, Raychaudhuri S, Lynch L, Moody DB, Brenner MB. Adipocyte associated glucocorticoid signaling regulates normal fibroblast function which is lost in inflammatory arthritis. Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 14;15(1):9859. PubMed PMID: 39543086
• Dunlap G, Wagner A, Meednu N, Wang R, Zhang F, Ekabe JC, Jonsson AH, Wei K, Sakaue S, Nathan A, Bykerk VP, Donlin LT, Goodman SM, Firestein GS, Boyle DL, Holers VM, Moreland LW, Tabechian D, Pitzalis C, Filer A, Raychaudhuri S, Brenner MB, Thakar J, McDavid A, Rao DA, Anolik JH. Clonal associations between lymphocyte subsets and functional states in rheumatoid arthritis synovium. Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 11;15(1):4991. PubMed PMID: 38862501
• Weinand K, Sakaue S, Nathan A, Jonsson AH, Zhang F, Watts GFM, Al Suqri M, Zhu Z, Rao DA, Anolik JH, Brenner MB, Donlin LT, Wei K, Raychaudhuri S. The chromatin landscape of pathogenic transcriptional cell states in rheumatoid arthritis. Nat Commun. 2024 May 31;15(1):4650. PubMed PMID: 38821936
• Bai Z, Bartelo N, Aslam M, Murphy EA, Hale CR, Blachere NE, Parveen S, Spolaore E, DiCarlo E, Gravallese EM, Smith MH, Frank MO, Jiang CS, Zhang H, Pyrgaki C, Lewis MJ, Sikandar S, Pitzalis C, Lesnak JB, Mazhar K, Price TJ, Malfait AM, Miller RE, Zhang F, Goodman S, Darnell RB, Wang F, Orange DE. Synovial fibroblast gene expression is associated with sensory nerve growth and pain in rheumatoid arthritis. Sci Transl Med. 2024 Apr 10;16(742):eadk3506. PubMed PMID: 38598614
• Horisberger A, Griffith A, Keegan J, Arazi A, Pulford J, Murzin E, Howard K, Hancock B, Fava A, Sasaki T, Ghosh T, Inamo J, Beuschel R, Cao Y, Preisinger K, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Eisenhaure TM, Guthridge J, Hoover PJ, Dall'Era M, Wofsy D, Kamen DL, Kalunian KC, Furie R, Belmont M, Izmirly P, Clancy R, Hildeman D, Woodle ES, Apruzzese W, McMahon MA, Grossman J, Barnas JL, Payan-Schober F, Ishimori M, Weisman M, Kretzler M, Berthier CC, Hodgin JB, Demeke DS, Putterman C, Brenner MB, Anolik JH, Raychaudhuri S, Hacohen N, James JA, Davidson A, Petri MA, Buyon JP, Diamond B, Zhang F, Lederer JA, Rao DA. Blood immunophenotyping identifies distinct kidney histopathology and outcomes in patients with lupus nephritis. bioRxiv. 2024 Mar 9. PubMed PMID: 38293222
• Iijima H, Zhang F, Ambrosio F, Matsui Y. Network-based cytokine inference implicates Oncostatin M as a driver of an inflammation phenotype in knee osteoarthritis. Aging Cell. 2023 Dec 18;:e14043. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 38111237
• Weisenfeld D, Zhang F, Donlin L, Jonsson AH, Apruzzese W, Campbell D, Rao DA, Wei K, Holers VM, Gravallese E, Moreland L, Goodman S, Brenner M, Raychaudhuri S, Filer A, Anolik J, Bykerk V, Liao KP. Associations between rheumatoid arthritis clinical factors with synovial cell types and states. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2023 Oct 4. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 37791989
• Zhang F, Jonsson AH, Nathan A, Millard N, Curtis M, Xiao Q, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Apruzzese W, Watts GFM, Weisenfeld D, Nayar S, Rangel-Moreno J, Meednu N, Marks KE, Mantel I, Kang JB, Rumker L, Mears J, Slowikowski K, Weinand K, Orange DE, Geraldino-Pardilla L, Deane KD, Tabechian D, Ceponis A, Firestein GS, Maybury M, Sahbudin I, Ben-Artzi A, Mandelin AM 2nd, Nerviani A, Lewis MJ, Rivellese F, Pitzalis C, Hughes LB, Horowitz D, DiCarlo E, Gravallese EM, Boyce BF, Moreland LW, Goodman SM, Perlman H, Holers VM, Liao KP, Filer A, Bykerk VP, Wei K, Rao DA, Donlin LT, Anolik JH, Brenner MB, Raychaudhuri S. Deconstruction of rheumatoid arthritis synovium defines inflammatory subtypes. Nature. 2023 Nov;623(7987):616-624. PubMed PMID: 37938773
• Kang JB, Shen AZ, Gurajala S, Nathan A, Rumker L, Aguiar VRC, Valencia C, Lagattuta KA, Zhang F, Jonsson AH, Yazar S, Alquicira-Hernandez J, Khalili H, Ananthakrishnan AN, Jagadeesh K, Dey K, Daly MJ, Xavier RJ, Donlin LT, Anolik JH, Powell JE, Rao DA, Brenner MB, Gutierrez-Arcelus M, Luo Y, Sakaue S, Raychaudhuri S. Mapping the dynamic genetic regulatory architecture of HLA genes at single-cell resolution. Nat Genet. 2023 Dec;55(12):2255-2268. PubMed PMID: 38036787
• Jonsson AH, Zhang F, Dunlap G, Gomez-Rivas E, Watts GFM, Faust HJ, Rupani KV, Mears JR, Meednu N, Wang R, Keras G, Coblyn JS, Massarotti EM, Todd DJ, Anolik JH, McDavid A, Wei K, Rao DA, Raychaudhuri S, Brenner MB. Granzyme K( ) CD8 T cells form a core population in inflamed human tissue. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Jun 15;14(649):eabo0686. PubMed PMID: 35704599
• Meednu N, Rangel-Moreno J, Zhang F, Escalera-Rivera K, Corsiero E, Prediletto E, DiCarlo E, Goodman S, Donlin LT, Raychauduri S, Bombardieri M, Pitzalis C, Orange DE, McDavid A, Anolik JH. Dynamic spectrum of ectopic lymphoid B cell activation and hypermutation in the RA synovium characterized by NR4A nuclear receptor expression. Cell Rep. 2022 May 3;39(5):110766. PubMed PMID: 35508128
• Guan S, Mehta B, Slater D, Thompson JR, DiCarlo E, Pannellini T, Pearce-Fisher D, Zhang F, Raychaudhuri S, Hale C, Jiang CS, Goodman S, Orange DE. Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial Inflammation Quantification Using Computer Vision. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2022 Apr;4(4):322-331. PubMed PMID: 35014221
• Fritz D, Inamo J, Zhang F. Single-cell computational machine learning approaches to immune-mediated inflammatory disease: New tools uncover novel fibroblast and macrophage interactions driving pathogenesis. Front Immunol. 2022;13:1076700. PubMed PMID: 36685542
• Zhang F, Mears JR, Shakib L, Beynor JI, Shanaj S, Korsunsky I, Nathan A, Donlin LT, Raychaudhuri S. IFN-? and TNF-a drive a CXCL10+ CCL2+ macrophage phenotype expanded in severe COVID-19 lungs and inflammatory diseases with tissue inflammation. Genome Med. 2021 Apr 20;13(1):64. PubMed PMID: 33879239
• Mysore V, Cullere X, Mears J, Rosetti F, Okubo K, Liew PX, Zhang F, Madera-Salcedo I, Rosenbauer F, Stone RM, Aster JC, von Andrian UH, Lichtman AH, Raychaudhuri S, Mayadas TN. Fc?R engagement reprograms neutrophils into antigen cross-presenting cells that elicit acquired anti-tumor immunity. Nat Commun. 2021 Aug 9;12(1):4791. PubMed PMID: 34373452
• Kang JB, Nathan A, Weinand K, Zhang F, Millard N, Rumker L, Moody DB, Korsunsky I, Raychaudhuri S. Efficient and precise single-cell reference atlas mapping with Symphony. Nat Commun. 2021 Oct 7;12(1):5890. PubMed PMID: 34620862
• Orange DE, Yao V, Sawicka K, Fak J, Frank MO, Parveen S, Blachere NE, Hale C, Zhang F, Raychaudhuri S, Troyanskaya OG, Darnell RB. RNA Identification of PRIME Cells Predicting Rheumatoid Arthritis Flares. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 16;383(3):218-228. PubMed PMID: 32668112
• Kuo D, Ding J, Cohn IS, Zhang F, Wei K, Rao DA, Rozo C, Sokhi UK, Shanaj S, Oliver DJ, Echeverria AP, DiCarlo EF, Brenner MB, Bykerk VP, Goodman SM, Raychaudhuri S, Rätsch G, Ivashkiv LB, Donlin LT. HBEGF(+) macrophages in rheumatoid arthritis induce fibroblast invasiveness. Sci Transl Med. 2019 May 8;11(491). PubMed PMID: 31068444
• Zhang F, Wei K, Slowikowski K, Fonseka CY, Rao DA, Kelly S, Goodman SM, Tabechian D, Hughes LB, Salomon-Escoto K, Watts GFM, Jonsson AH, Rangel-Moreno J, Meednu N, Rozo C, Apruzzese W, Eisenhaure TM, Lieb DJ, Boyle DL, Mandelin AM 2nd, Boyce BF, DiCarlo E, Gravallese EM, Gregersen PK, Moreland L, Firestein GS, Hacohen N, Nusbaum C, Lederer JA, Perlman H, Pitzalis C, Filer A, Holers VM, Bykerk VP, Donlin LT, Anolik JH, Brenner MB, Raychaudhuri S. Defining inflammatory cell states in rheumatoid arthritis joint synovial tissues by integrating single-cell transcriptomics and mass cytometry. Nat Immunol. 2019 Jul;20(7):928-942. PubMed PMID: 31061532
• Korsunsky I, Millard N, Fan J, Slowikowski K, Zhang F, Wei K, Baglaenko Y, Brenner M, Loh PR, Raychaudhuri S. Fast, sensitive and accurate integration of single-cell data with Harmony. Nat Methods. 2019 Dec;16(12):1289-1296. PubMed PMID: 31740819
• Arazi A, Rao DA, Berthier CC, Davidson A, Liu Y, Hoover PJ, Chicoine A, Eisenhaure TM, Jonsson AH, Li S, Lieb DJ, Zhang F, Slowikowski K, Browne EP, Noma A, Sutherby D, Steelman S, Smilek DE, Tosta P, Apruzzese W, Massarotti E, Dall'Era M, Park M, Kamen DL, Furie RA, Payan-Schober F, Pendergraft WF 3rd, McInnis EA, Buyon JP, Petri MA, Putterman C, Kalunian KC, Woodle ES, Lederer JA, Hildeman DA, Nusbaum C, Raychaudhuri S, Kretzler M, Anolik JH, Brenner MB, Wofsy D, Hacohen N, Diamond B. Publisher Correction: The immune cell landscape in kidneys of patients with lupus nephritis. Nat Immunol. 2019 Oct;20(10):1404. PubMed PMID: 31409923
• Zhang F, Flaherty P. Variational inference for rare variant detection in deep, heterogeneous next-generation sequencing data. BMC Bioinformatics. 2017 Jan 19;18(1):45. PubMed PMID: 28103803
• He Y, Zhang F, Flaherty P. RVD2: an ultra-sensitive variant detection model for low-depth heterogeneous next-generation sequencing data. Bioinformatics. 2015 Sep 1;31(17):2785-93. PubMed PMID: 25931517
• Liu, S.*, Li, L.*, Zhang, F*, …, Church, G., Iterative transcription factor screening enables rapid generation of microglia-like cells from human iPSC, bioRxiv, In review, 2022

Professional Memberships

• The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), Member
• American College of Rheumatology (ACR), Member
• Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB), Member

Practice Locations

UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital (UCH)
12605 E. 16th Ave
Aurora, CO 80045
720-848-0000

Center Affiliations

• Center for Health Artificial Intelligence
• Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI)

Specialty Information

Specialties

• Rheumatology