Prof. ZHAO, Hui

Associate Professor

Personal Information

Associate Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences 

Office: (852) 3943 1344
Email: zhaohui@cuhk.edu.hk
Address: Room 620A, 6/F, Lo Kwee-Seong Integrated Biomedical Science Building, Area 39, CUHK
SBS Website: https://www2.sbs.cuhk.edu.hk/en-gb/people/academic-staff/prof-zhao-hui

Research Interests

Prof. ZHAO Hui (趙暉) is working at the School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his Bachelor Degree and Master Degree from Shandong University. He then went to Germany, and got his Ph.D. from the University of Essen, Germany. He had his post-doctoral training at the National Institutes of Health and Child Health and Development (NICHD) before he joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008. Professor Zhao’s research interests cover developmental biology and cancer biology. His laboratory studies the mechanism of neural crest differentiation, germ layer formation and cell migration, and how these multiple events affect the embryonic patterning. In the past few years, he also studied the tumorigenesis of neuroblastoma. Recently his group utilized TALEN and Cas9 nucleases to do gene targeting in Xenopus, zebrafish, and stem cells. He has published over 70 papers in high impact journals including PNAS, Development, EMBO Journal, Nucleic Acids Research and Journal of Biological Chemistry. He serves as reviewers for various magazines including PNAS, Development, and Plos Biology. His research is supported by the funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Hong Kong Research Grants Council.

Research Interests

  1. Genetic and epigenetic regulation in the neural crest formation
  2. Molecular mechanisms of germ layer formation during early embryonic development
  3. Gene regulation and functional genomics in neuroblastoma
  4. Genome editing in Xenopus embryos and stem cells
  5. Molecular mechanisms of tissue regeneration and repair

Selected Publications

  1. Li TF, Deng Y, Shi Y, Tian RJ, Chen YL, Zou L, Kazi JU, Rönnstrand L, Feng B, Chan SO, Chan WY, Sun J, Zhao H. “Bruton’s tyrosine kinase potentiates ALK signaling and serves as a potential therapeutic target of neuroblastoma.” Oncogene In press, 2018.
  2. Mao CZ, Zheng L, Zhou YM, Wu HY, Xia JB, Liang CQ, Guo XF, Peng WT, Zhao H, Cai WB, Kim SK, Park KS, Cai DQ, Qi XF. “CRISPR/Cas9-mediated efficient and precise targeted integration of donor DNA harboring double cleavage sites in Xenopus tropicalis.” FASEB J, 2018 [Epub ahead of print].
  3. He XY, Tan ZL, Mou Q, Liu FJ, Liu S, Yu CW, Zhu J, Lv LY, Zhang J, Wang S, Bao L, Peng B, Zhao H, Zou L. “microRNA-221 enhances MYCN via targeting nemo-like kinase, and functions as an oncogene related to poor prognosis in neuroblastoma.” Clin Cancer Res, 2017; 23: 2905-2918.
  4. Liu Z, Guo J, Wang Y, Weng Z, Huang B, Yu MK, Zhang X, Yuan P, Zhao H, Chan WY, Jiang X, Chan HC. “CFTR-β-catenin interaction regulates mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation and embryonic development.” Cell Death Differ, 201724: 98-110.
  5. He X, Tan C, Wang F, Wang Y, Zhou R, Cui D, You W, Zhao H, Ren J, Feng B. “Knock-in of large reporter genes in human cells via CRISPR/Cas9-induced homology-dependent and independent DNA repair.” Nucleic Acids Res, 2016; 44(9):e85.
  6. Wang CD, Kam RTK, Shi WL, Xia Y, Chen XF, Cao Y, Sun J, Du Y, Lu G, Chen ZJ, Chan WY, Chan SO, Deng Y, Zhao H. “The proto-oncogene transcription factor Ets1 regulates neural crest development through Histone Deacetylase 1 to mediate output of bone morphogenetic protein signaling.” J Biol Chem, 2015; 290(36):21925-21938.
  7. Shi Z, Wang F, Cui Y, Liu Z, Guo X, Zhang Y, Deng Y, Zhao H, Chen Y. “Heritable CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted integration in Xenopus tropicalis.” FASEB J, 2015; 29(12):4914-4923.
  8. Shi WL, Xu G, Wang CD, Sperber SM, Chen YL, Zhou Q, Deng Y, Zhao H. “Heat shock 70kDa protein 5 (Hspa5) is essential for pronephros formation by mediating retinoic acid signaling.” J Biol Chem, 2015; 290(1):577-589.
  9. Liu Y, Luo DY, Lei Y, Hu W, Zhao H, Cheng CHK. “A highly effective TALEN-mediated approach for targeted gene disruption in Xenopus tropicalis and zebrafish.” Methods, 2014; 69(1):58-66, S1046-2023.
  10. Hu J, Lei Y, Wong WK, Liu S, Lee KC, He X, You W, Zhou R, Guo JT, Chen X, Peng X, Sun H, Huang H, Zhao H, Feng B. “Direct activation of human and mouse Oct4 genes using engineered TALE and Cas9 transcription factors.” Nucleic Acids Res., 2014; 42(7):4375-4390.