Hao Zhu

Dr. Hao Zhu is a Professor and faculty member at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He serves as Director of the Tissue Regeneration Program and co-leader of the Development and Cancer Research Program in the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. A medical oncologist, he treats hepatocellular carcinoma patients at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Zhu earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Duke University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and MIT, and clinical training in internal medicine at UCSF and medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His postdoctoral research was conducted in George Daley’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital (2008–2012).

His research focuses on how injury, regeneration, and wound healing influence liver function and cancer formation. The Zhu lab uses genomic approaches and lineage tracing to study somatic mosaicism in chronic liver disease and liver cancer. Key research areas include liver zonation, clonal fitness, and the interplay between regeneration and tumorigenesis.

Dr. Zhu has received notable awards, including the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award, CPRIT Scholar Award, and Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award. He holds the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Distinguished Chair in Therapeutic Oncology Research.

His lab has published extensively on liver regeneration, somatic mutations, and cancer biology. Collaborators and students include current and former researchers such as Eric Chen, Natasha Corbitt, and Yuemeng Jia. Ongoing projects address cellular sources of hepatocytes, somatic mutation impacts, and regenerative capacity in cancer.