A major focus of Zhang's research is the elucidation of the fundamental principles of transcriptional regulation. The primary experimental approaches used in the laboratory are macromolecular structure determination and allied biophysical techniques. The transcription of DNA information into mature RNA messages requires a temporally changing transcription apparatus, which is assembled from RNA polymerase II and various processing factors. The appropriate assembly of the transcription apparatus is governed by information programmed in the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. This so-called 'CTD code' operates through changes in the conformation of CTD, which are affected largely through alteration of the phosphorylation state of this domain. Her main research interests focus on how phosphorylation of CTD is regulated and how this phosphorylation affects the outcome of transcription, and in turn, how these processes are involved in important biological phenomena such as cancer and neurogenesis. Ultimately, the aim is to exploit the results from this research in the design of small molecule effectors that can intervene in the CTD processes and thereby function as regulators of gene expression.