Dr. Zhu received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the department of biology, NanKai University, Tianjin, China, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry (now known as Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology), Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined the Laboratory of Immunology (LI) first as a visiting fellow and then as a staff scientist studying CD4 T-cell differentiation. He was appointed as an Earl Stadtman investigator in the LI in 2011 and received tenure in 2017. He is interested in investigating heterogeneity and plasticity of immune cells and their functions during normal and pathological immune responses at cellular and molecular levels. His focus is on induction and functions of transcription factor complexes during development, lineage commitment, and maintenance of immune cells, particularly CD4 T helper (Th) cells and innate lymphoid cells (ILCs).

Diversity and plasticity of T helper (Th) subsets, Development and functions of innate lymphoid cell (ILC) subsets, Transcriptional regulation of lineage-specific genes