Labs

Zhu Laboratory

About the Lab

The Yuan Zhu, Ph.D., research group is interested in understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development of normal neural stem and progenitor cells as well as tumorigenesis in the nervous system. We are using the mouse as a model system to develop genetic engineering mouse (GEM) tumor models, which recapitulate human cancers both genetically and phenotypically (Zhu et al., Cell 1998; Zhu et al., Science 2002; Zhu et al., Cancer Cell 2005; Zheng et al., Cancer Cell 2008; Wang et al., Cancer Cell 2009; Wang et al., Cell 2012; Kim et al., eLife 2014; Akgul et al. Cell Reports 2018; Li et al., Nature Communications 2020). In addition, we have been focusing on the role of tumor suppressor genes in the development and injury of the nervous system (Zhu et al., Genes and Development 2001; Romero et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2007; Kim et al., eLife 2014).