Zhenjiang (Zech) Xu is a research group leader at the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University. He earned his PhD in RNA secondary structure prediction under the supervision of Professor David Mathews at the University of Rochester, and completed postdoctoral training with Professor Rob Knight at the University of California, San Diego. He later returned to China to establish an independent research group, where his work focuses on microbiome research and the development of bioinformatic tools.