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Dr. Jianzhong Chen is currently an assistant professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. He received his BS degree from University of Science & Technology of China (USTC) in 1993 and obtained his PhD degree in 2003 from Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) under the direction of Professor David Hage. After his PhD studies on drug-protein interactions with bio-interaction chromatography, he continued postdoctoral studies but switched his research area to proteomics using mass spectrometry as the major tool, first (2004-2006) at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with Professor David Lubman (Department of Chemistry) and Professor Diane Simeone (Department of Surgery), and then (2006-2007) at Washington State University with Professor James Bruce (Department of Chemistry, moved to Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington in Dec., 2008). From 2007 to 2014, he worked as a Scientist for Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL, contracted through Henry Jackson Foundation) and in the meantime, as a Visiting Scientist at The Ohio State University (OSU) Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics Facility (MSP). At OSU, most of the time he worked in the area of proteomics for AFRL with his interest focusing more on top-down proteomics (an approach to characterize proteins based on tandem mass spectrometry of intact proteins instead of enzymatically-derived peptides); in the meantime, he started to work in the exciting area of lipidomics on identifying and quantifying lipids in human meibomian gland secretions (meibum), the predominant source for lipids in tears, through the collaboration between MSP and Professor Kelly Nichols. A change of these lipids, either qualitatively or quantitatively, is believed to be the major cause of dry eye disease. The majority of these lipids are neutral lipids including wax esters, cholesteryl esters and diesters, which are well-known to be challenging for mass spectrometrists. Chen group's present research interests involve developing new lipidomic and proteomic methods for better understanding the lipid composition in tears and their role in maintaining the normal function of tears.