Dr. Zhong’s research program has evolved from clinical nephrology and translational studies to mechanistic investigation of progressive kidney disease, cardiovascular complications of chronic kidney disease (CKD), lymphatic vascular biology and kidney development. Her early work addressed clinically important problems in kidney transplantation, CKD progression, dialysis-associated cardiovascular risk and therapeutic strategies for kidney injury. She subsequently made important contributions to HIV-associated nephropathy by using transgenic mouse models to define how podocyte-restricted HIV gene expression drives podocyte injury, glomerulosclerosis and the full spectrum of HIV-associated kidney disease. Building on this foundation, her work expanded to CKD-associated cardiovascular disease, with emphasis on how kidney injury alters lipid and lipoprotein biology, macrophage inflammatory function, vascular injury and cardiac fibrosis. More recently, Dr. Zhong has developed a particularly compelling research focus on kidney lymphatic vessels as active regulators of renal homeostasis and injury response. Her studies suggest that kidney lymphatics help clear interstitial lipoproteins, immune mediators and injury-associated signals, thereby shaping inflammation, tissue remodeling and kidney-systemic organ crosstalk. In parallel, her long-standing interest in kidney development has provided insight into how antenatal stress and developmental programming influence nephron endowment, postnatal glomerular maturation and lifelong susceptibility to kidney disease. Her current work integrates genetically modified animal models, experimental models of renal injury, molecular and cellular approaches, renal pathology, quantitative imaging and spatial/pathomics-based analysis of rodent and human kidney tissue to define how developmental programming, lymphatic function, lipid handling and inflammation converge to determine renal repair or progression.