Yazhen Zhu, MD, PhD

The primary research interest of Dr. Zhu's liquid biopsy lab is exploring the unique potentials of liquid biopsy markers, including circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs), to facilitate the clinical translation and validation of cancer diagnostic platforms. The liquid biopsy lab established translational research programs, which focus on developing and validating liquid biopsy-based diagnostic platforms for noninvasive cancer diagnosis.

J. Dong, R.Y. Zhang, N. Sun, M. Smalley, Z. Wu, A. Zhou, S.J. Chou, Y.J. Jan, P. Yang, L. Bao, D. Qi, X. Tang, P. Tseng, Y. Hua, D. Xu, R. Kao, M. Meng, X. Zheng, Y. Liu, T. Vagner, X. Chai, D. Zhou, M. Li, S.H. Chiou, G. Zheng, D. Di Vizio, V.G. Agopian, E. Posadas, S.J. Jonas, S.P. Ju, P.S. Weiss, M. Zhao, H.R. Tseng, Y. Zhu, Bio-inspired NanoVilli Chips for enhanced capture of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles: toward non-invasive detection of gene alterations in non-small cell lung cancer, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 11 (2019) 13973-13983.

J. Dong, Y.J. Jan, J. Cheng, R.Y. Zhang, M. Meng, M. Smalley, P.J. Chen, X. Tang, P. Tseng, L. Bao, T.Y. Huang, D. Zhou, Y. Liu, X. Chai, H. Zhang, A. Zhou, V.G. Agopian, E.M. Posadas, J.J. Shyue, S.J. Jonas, P.S. Weiss, M. Li, G. Zheng, H.H. Yu, M. Zhao, H.R. Tseng, Y. Zhu, Covalent chemistry on nanostructured substrates enables noninvasive quantification of gene rearrangements in circulating tumor cells, Sci Adv, 5 (2019) eaav9186.

J. Dong, R.Y. Zhang, N. Sun, J. Hu, M.D. Smalley, A. Zhou, Y. Hua, W. Rothermich, M. Chen, J. Chen, J. Ye, P.-C. Teng, D. Qi, J.A. Toretsky, J.S. Tomlinson, M. Li, P.S. Weiss, S.J. Jonas, N. Federman, L. Wu, M. Zhao, H.-R. Tseng, Y. Zhu, Coupling Nanostructured Microchips with Covalent Chemistry Enables Purification of Sarcoma‐Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Downstream Functional Studies, Adv. Func. Mater. 30 (2020) 20-32.

N. Sun, Y.T. Lee, R.Y. Zhang, R. Kao, P.C. Teng, Y. Yang, P. Yang, J.J. Wang, M. Smalley, P.J. Chen, M. Kim, S.J. Chou, L. Bao, J. Wang, X. Zhang, D. Qi, J. Palomique, N. Nissen, S.B. Han, S. Sadeghi, R.S. Finn, S. Saab, R.W. Busuttil, D. Markovic, D. Elashoff, H.H. Yu, H. Li, A.P. Heaney, E. Posadas, S. You, J.D. Yang, R. Pei, V.G. Agopian, H.R. Tseng, Y. Zhu, Purification of HCC-specific extracellular vesicles on nanosubstrates for early HCC detection by digital scoring, Nat Commun, 11 (2020) 4489.

J. Dong, J.F. Chen, M. Smalley, M. Zhao, Z. Ke, Y. Zhu, H.R. Tseng, Nanostructured Substrates for Detection and Characterization of Circulating Rare Cells: From Materials Research to Clinical Applications, Adv Mater, 32 (2020) e1903663.