Pancreatic Disorders & Therapy
Open Access

Binhua P Zhou

Biography

Dr. Zhou received his MD degree in China on 1986 and his PhD degree in Pharmacology and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin on 1996. He did his post-doctoral training in cancer research, particularly in metastasis, in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was appointed as an assistant professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) on 2002 and 2005, respectively. Currently, Dr. Zhou is an associated professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. His research program is supported by NIH, DOD, Susan Komen Foundation and Mary Kay Ash Foundation.

Research Interest

Dr Zhou research interest is on Metastasis, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). He is currently focusing on characterization of the functional role and regulation of Snail/Slug transcription factors in the control of EMT. Snail is a zinc-finger transcriptional repressor that was identified in Drosophila as a suppressor of the transcription of shotgun (an E-cadherin homologue) in the control of embryogenesis. Flies and mice without Snail are lethal because of severe defects at the gastrula stage during development. Expression of Snail correlates with the tumor grade and nodal metastasis of many types of tumor and predicts a poor outcome in patients with metastatic cancer, particularly pancreatic cancer . They were employing biochemical, molecular, and cellular approaches to study the functional regulation of Snail in breast cancer.