Qiang Tong Lab Members

I was born in Northern China and grew up in Shanghai. I attended the University of Science and Technology of China with a major in Cell Biology. I went on to get a M.S. degree in Cell Immunology from the Institute of Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai. Afterward, I pursued a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Ohio State University. My thesis work was on the oncogenic mechanism of the Ret/PTC1 oncogene. I did my postdoctoral training with Dr. Gokhan Hotamisligil at Harvard School of Public Health, investigating the role of the GATA transcription factors in the formation of white and brown adipocytes. I joined the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine to study genes that regulate adipocyte biology and metabolism in muscle and liver. Besides research work, I have hobbies in reading and photography.

West Houston born and raised, my interests in the fields of science grew primarily from my love of Sci-Fi programs on television such as Star Trek and Fringe. I would go further on by attending the University of Houston to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in the biochemical and biophysical sciences, along with a minor in mathematics. During my undergraduate career I would go on to participate in an independent summer internship in studying a novel biomaterial formulated from the ultrabithorax protein, a transcription factor found in Drosophila melanogaster. Shortly after graduating, I applied to the Tong Lab at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center, where I am currently the research technician in charge of the mouse colony, experimental design, data analysis, and lab management. My initial research interests began with protein-protein interactions and during my time here at CNRC it has evolved towards metabolism. Outside of the lab, I greatly enjoy learning new things in life and am often found pursuing new hobbies such as photography, gardening, cooking, sketching, and most recently woodworking.