主要从事神经母细胞瘤的发病机制及其信号转导通路、药物治疗靶点开发、固有免疫等领域的研究；2014年于吉林大学获得博士学位（医学免疫学），2013年至2018年在梅奥医学中心（Mayo Clinic）进行博士后研究工作。2018年回国至今，获得国家自然科学基金青年项目的资助，项目名称：抑癌基因DOCK8及其信号转导通路在神经母细胞瘤发病机制中的作用。获得吉林大学优秀青年教师培养计划项目资助以及医学部白求恩B计划项目，并获得2020年度吉林省科技发展计划支持项目。近年来，以第一作者和共同作者在Cancer Cell, Cell Reports, Cancer discovery, Cancer Research等知名期刊上发表多篇原创性论文：
1. Shizhen Zhu? (co-first author), Xiaoling Zhang? (co-first author), Nina Weichert, et al. LMO1 Synergizes with MYCN to Promote Neuroblastoma Initiation and Metastasis. Cancer Cell. 2017 Aug 31; 32(3):310-323. (IF: 27.407)
2. Zhang X, Dong Z, Zhang C, et al. Critical Role for GAB2 in Neuroblastoma Pathogenesis through the Promotion of SHP2/MYCN Cooperation. Cell Rep. 2017 Mar 21; 18 (12):2932-2942. (IF: 8.4)
3. Zhang X, Sun W, Wu X, et al. An Oligodeoxynucleotide with CCT Repeats Restrains CpG ODN-Induced TLR9 Trafficking. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2014; 15 (9):780-9. (IF: 2.5)
4. Ung CY, Guo F, Zhang X, et al. Mosaic Zebrafish Transgenesis for Functional Genomic Analysis of Candidate Cooperative Genes in Tumor Pathogenesis. JoVE 2015; (97): 52567.
5. Mark W. Zimmerman, Yu Liu, Shuning He, Adam D. Durbin, Brian J. Abraham, John Easton, Ying Shao, Beisi Xu, Shizhen Zhu, Xiaoling Zhang, Zhaodong Li, Nina Weichert-Leahey, Richard A. Young, Jinghui Zhang and A. Thomas Look. MYC Drives a Subset of High-Risk Pediatric Neuroblastomas and Is Activated through Mechanisms Including Enhancer Hijacking and Focal Enhancer Amplification. Cancer Discov. 2018; 8(3):320-335.