Greehey CCRI Seminar Series, Spring ’23: Yuan Zhu, PhD – Children’s National

Yuan Zhu, Ph.D., is a Gilbert Family Endowed Professor of Neurofibromatosis Research and serves as a scientific director in the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. Dr. Zhu also serves as associate director of Basic Research at the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at the Children’s National Hospital. Dr. Zhu is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Zhu obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 2000, was an assistant professor from 2003 to 2010, and associate professor with tenure from 2010 to 2013 in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Zhu has contributed significantly to understanding the cellular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-associated diseases, the role of tumor suppressor genes in normal development, and brain tumorigenesis. Dr. Zhu has developed a series of genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models for a variety of NF1-associated diseases, including plexiform neurofibroma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), and low- and high-grade gliomas. Some or derivatives of these GEM models were used for the preclinical studies, serving as the basis for the success of clinical trials using MEK inhibitors for a plexiform neurofibroma. Further, Dr. Zhu’s group is one of the research groups that showed the therapeutic efficacy of MEKi in treating NF1-associated diseases.

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