Youli Zu, MD, PhD

Professor of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Academic Institute
Full Member, Research Institute
Professor and Director of Hematopathology, Department of Pathology & Genomic Medicine
Houston Methodist Hospital
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College

Emailyzu@HoustonMethodist.org

5241 Citations
38 h-Index

Research output per year

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Personal profile

After obtaining his MD and PhD degrees, Dr. Zu attended the University of Connecticut Health Center as a postdoctoral fellow and later remained there as an assistant professor. He then spent four years in pathology residency training at New York University, followed by a two-year hematopathology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Zu joined the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital in 2004, where he currently serves as the Medical Director of the Hematopathology Section. He is also Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Zu is also the Director of the Cancer Pathology research laboratory at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. These combined positions enable him to address clinically-driven questions. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Zu has pioneered the translation of the oligonucleotide aptamers and nanotechnology into clinical applications, and his research is currently funded by multiple NIH and CPRIT grants.

Research interests

Dr. Zu's clinical interests include diagnosis of hematopoietic and lymphoid disorders. His research centers on the development of novel diagnostics and treatments for these disorders. His laboratory was the first to use aptamer probes to enhance the diagnostic capabilities of multi-color flow cytometry amd immunohistochemical staining, and for rapid detection of circulating tumor cells in whole blood samples. By combining nanotechnology with aptamer technology, Dr. Zu's laboratory is also developing new multi-functional nanomedicine for specific tumor imaging and targeted therapy of several cancer types, including lymphomas, multiple myeloma, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and hepatocellular (liver) carcinoma. Other directions of his laboratory include studies on the role of cancer stem cells in the development of multiple myeloma and elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the myelodysplastic syndrome.

Education/Academic qualification

Hematopathology, Clinical Fellowship, National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Jul 1 2002 → Jun 30 2004

Award Date: Jun 30 2004

Pathology, Residency, New York University Medical Center

Jul 1 1998 → Jun 30 2002

Award Date: Jun 30 2002

Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Connecticut Health Center

Jul 1 1992 → Jun 30 1998

Award Date: Jun 30 1998

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Tsukuba Life Science Research Center, RIKEN

Feb 1 1990 → Jun 30 1992

Award Date: Jun 30 1992

PhD, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine

Oct 1985 → Jan 1 1990

Award Date: Jan 1 1990

MD, Jilin Medical College

Apr 1 1978 → Dec 1 1982

Award Date: Dec 1 1982

Research Area Keywords

Precision Medicine
Cancer
Nanomedicine
Infectious Disease & Pathology

Free-text keywords

Aptamer technology

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Projects

3 Active
17 Finished

Development of a Point-of-Care Volumetric Bar-Chart Chip for Drug Quantitation

Qin, L. & Zu, Y.

6/15/18 → 3/31/21

Project: Federal Funding Agencies

Self-assembled multifunctional aptamer-complex biomaterial for precision medicine

Zu, Y. & Iyer, S. P.

1/15/18 → 12/31/22

Project: Federal Funding Agencies

SPORE in Lymphoma

Zu, Y. & Bernard, D. W.

9/1/17 → 8/31/22

Project: Federal Funding Agencies

High Throughput Single-Cell Phenotype Isolation by Protrusion Analysis Chip (PAC)

Qin, L., Zu, Y. & Zhang, K.

National Cancer Institute

8/15/15 → 7/31/18

Project: Federal Funding Agencies

An ultra-sensitive nanomagnetic sensor for the early detection of anaplactic large cell lymphoma

Zu, Y.

University of Houston

5/1/15 → 2/28/19

Project: State