Profile

Dr. Tianhua Zhou, Professor of Cell Biology and Tutor of Ph.D. students, is an Associate Dean of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Dr. Zhou received his Bachelor degree with the highest honor (“Zhu Ke Zhen Award”) from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in 1993.  In 1996, Dr. Zhou earned his Master degree in Clinical Medicine (Cardiology) from Zhejiang University. In 1999, Dr. Zhou received Ph.D. in cell biology from Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, a top biology research institution in China, where he was working as a Ph.D. candidate with Dr. Gang Pei, one of top biologists in China. From 2000 to 2005, He had been employed as a full-time Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Harvard University with the Lasker winner, Dr. Raymond L. Erikson, a member of National Academy of Sciences, USA. Since 2005, he has become a Professor of Cell Biology, Zhejiang University School of Basic Medicine.

Dr. Zhou has made several novel unique discoveries in the field of biomedical sciences including molecular cell biology and cancer research. His high quality research articles are published in a number of prestigious and international journals including Developmental Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Molecular Cell Biology, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Oncogene, Cancer Letters, FEBS Letters, Molecular Pharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology and Cell Research, etc. Many of his publications have been peer-viewed and highly recognized by other researchers in the field worldwide. More noticeably, some of Dr. Zhou’s publications have been cited in several hundreds times in a variety of prestigious peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Reviews of Molecular Cell Biology and Nature Cell Biology. As an internationally well-recognized expert, Dr. Zhou has been invited as an author to write a review article in the book “Signal Transduction of Cell Division”, which is edited by Dr. Toru Miki, a Senior Investigator and Chief of Molecular Tumor Biology Section, Laboratory of Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, NIH (USA).

Dr. Zhou’s current research focus on the regulation of cell movement and its role in gastric carcinogenesis. His group has been well funded by Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Recently, his group continues to contribute new knowledge on cell movement and cancer research. Recently, he and his colleagues identify a novel gene, NudCL2 (Nuclear distribution gene C-like 2), and demonstrate it functions as a regulator of cytoplasmic Dynein to modulate cell movement (Yang et al., 2010, PNAS).