Biography

Hao Zhu earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Duke University, followed by an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and MIT. He underwent clinical training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Zhu performed postdoctoral research in George Daley’s laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital from 2008 to 2012. He joined the faculty of Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern in 2012. Dr. Zhu is the Director of CRI's Tissue Regeneration Program and a co-leader of the Development and Cancer Research Program in the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. As a medical oncologist, he treats hepatocellular carcinoma patients in the Multidisciplinary Liver Cancer Clinic at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

 

Dr. Zhu is the recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists (2012), a CPRIT Scholar Award (2012), a Stand Up To Cancer Innovative Research Grant (2016), and the Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award (2021). Dr. Zhu holds the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Distinguished Chair in Therapeutic Oncology Research.

 

Using the liver as a model system, the Zhu laboratory is trying to elucidate how injury, regeneration, and wound healing influence organ function and cancer formation. They believe that understanding somatic mosaicism will be a key genetic strategy to deconvolute the complexity of wound healing and are using human genomic approaches, in vivo genetic screening, and lineage tracing to understand the functional implications of somatic mosaicism in chronic liver disease and liver cancer.

Education

Medical School
Harvard Medical School (2005)
Residency
University of California, San Francisco (2007), Internal Medicine
Fellowship
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (2011), Hematology Oncology

Research Interest

  • Chronic liver disease
  • In vivo genetic screening
  • Liver cancer
  • Liver regeneration
  • Mechanisms of organ regeneration

Publications

Featured Publications LegendFeatured Publications

Honors & Awards

  • Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award
    (2021-2024)
  • Member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation
    (2018)
  • SU2C Innovative Research Grant
    (2016-2019)
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists
    (2012)
  • CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
    (2012)