Zhang lei has long been engaged in the research of organ size regulation and tissue homeostasis maintenance.

From 1991 to 1995, he studied at the Department of Molecular Biology of Jilin University for a bachelor's degree. From 1995 to 1998, he studied at the Key Laboratory for Molecular Enzymology & Engineering, the Ministry of Education (Jilin University) for a master's degree. From 1998 to 2001, he studied at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for a Ph.D. degree. From 2001 to 2008, he successively worked as a postdoctoral fellow and assistant lecturer at UT Southwestern Medical Center. In 2009, he returned to China as a talent introduced by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was employed by the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a research fellow and principal investigator. He also served as a distinguished professor at ShanghaiTech University in 2015, and is currently a distinguished research fellow at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was funded by the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program in 2009 and supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2016.