Another UMass Chan Animal Experimenter Caught Breaking the Rules
A University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) experimenter was caught violating so many animal welfare rules that she was kicked off her own experiments and banned from touching animals for a year, making her the eighth animal tormentor PETA has exposed at the school.
Jin Zhang was sidelined by the school’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, the panel responsible for overseeing experiments on animals, after investigators discovered that she continued carving into numerous mice despite being barred from performing surgeries and committed other serious violations of animal welfare rules.
Her experiments were suspended, and she served at least a one-year ban that barred her from entering animal facilities, handling, or conducting experiments on animals.
Zhang joins UMass Chan colleagues Milena Bogunovic, Matt Gounis, Heather Gray-Edwards, Shuying Liu, J. Kevin Donahue, Alisha Gruntman and Raffi Aroian, whose cruelty and/or incompetence PETA recently detailed.
Cut Out Their Tongues
Zhang has a long history of grisly experiments on mice. Her suspended experiments center on how sugar and artificial sweeteners may affect taste perception and weight gain.
Her published work includes cutting into mice and exposing nerves that carry taste information from the tongue to the brain. She drilled into their skulls and injected engineered viruses into their brains. She implanted devices into their skulls to measure and manipulate their brain cells.
She also withheld liquids from mice to force their participation in behavioral experiments, in exchange for a sip of water.
Zhang kills the mice, cuts out their tongues, brains, and other organs when she’s finished with them.
An Experimenter Who Can’t Experiment?
Zhang’s laboratory has documented infractions dating back to 2023, when a staff member violated protocol by snapping the neck of a days-old mouse. The school required retraining, supervision, and months of monitoring.
By early 2025, Zhang’s laboratory was operating under a corrective-action plan. Public records obtained by PETA do not explain why, but this is a sure sign that she and her laboratory members were failing to follow rules and regulations. In February 2025, Zhang appeared before the committee to discuss modifications to the plan, including training requirements, personnel qualifications, surgical activities, and veterinary observation requirements.
Three months later, the animal care committee reviewed findings from two whistleblower reports involving Zhang’s laboratory. The committee investigated, reviewing documents and interviewing staff. What they found was disturbing.
Staff in Zhang’s laboratory continued drilling into the skulls of mice, injecting viruses into their brains, and implanting devices, despite a suspension of surgical activities. Investigators also found that unqualified personnel removed the adrenal glands of mice before the procedure was approved.
The committee suspended Zhang’s experiments in May 2025, revoked her laboratory access, and requested a written response from Zhang, all while discussing a permanent end to her ability to experiment on animals. The following month, the committee transferred Zhang’s experiments to someone else and barred her from accessing animals or animal facilities.
By July 2025, the committee barred Zhang from working with animals for at least one year, stipulating that she must complete remedial training before the committee would consider letting her back in a laboratory.
Irreparably Broken
Zhang’s case alone would be enough to question whether UMass Chan has the ability to rein in its rogue experimenters. But Zhang is the eighth—EIGHTH—UMass Chan experimenter who PETA has exposed to be incapable of following the rules, causing immense suffering to animals.
Get Involved
Please add your voice to ours. TAKE ACTION today and urge UMass Chan to get out of the cruel and pointless animal tormenting business altogether and switch to human-relevant, non-animal research methods.
