Dr. Quan Zhu is the Associate Director for Spatial and Functional Genomics at the UC San Diego Center for Epigenomics. She leads a team of optical and electrical engineers, scientific research associates, and bioinformatic programmers who focus on profiling gene expression and chromatin organization from single cells in their native tissue context. She oversees experimental design and data interpretation for- multiple collaborative projects with investigators both in and out of San Diego.
She has a broad background in genetics, epigenetics, and cell biology, with specific training in tissue-specific gene regulation using human and mouse models for breast cancer, molecular biology, and viral vector-based transgenesis. Her interests are in understanding the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms by which cells maintain highly regulated gene expression programs, with the goal of developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers. Her previous work has revealed a new tumor suppression pathway that involves heterochromatin, non-coding DNA, DNA damage responses, and genomic stability.
Her current and future collaboration with a variety of investigators use an integrated approach of imaging- and next-generation sequencing-based spatial genomics, viral vector technology, and functional genomics to decipher the fundamental principles governing the functions and higher-order organization of chromatin in human health and diseases.