Dr. Zhao completed her PhD in genetics from Yale University. She received post-doctoral training at University of Chicago. Dr. Zhao has a broad research background in genetics, cancer, bioinformatics and statistical genetics. She is interested in the roles of genetic variations and computational methods to translate large-scale genomic data into disease mechanisms. In the past, she has developed computational and statistical methods to study the genetics of cancer and other complex diseases. She also used functional genomics approaches to identifying causal genetic variations and genes implicated in neurological disorders. In her graduate studies, she has led the data analysis of several cancer whole-exome sequencing projects. These projects have revealed the genetic landscape of cancers and identified novel driver genes.
Moving forward, research in her lab will focus on studying the genetic etiology of human diseases, in particular, cancer. Her lab will develop computational methods and tools to analyze large-scale genomic datasets, aiming to translate data into biological insights. Specific areas of interest include modeling of mutation selection in cancer, genotype-phenotype association analysis, integration of multiple types of genomic datasets for disease gene discovery.