Hong-Jian Zhu, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Head, Cancer Signaling Laboratory, Department of Surgery (RMH), The University of Melbourne, The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Dr. Hong-Jian Zhu is currently the head of Cancer Signalling Research Laboratory with an appointment as Senior Research Fellow in Department of Surgery (RMH), The University of Melbourne since 2006. Dr Zhu is a creative independent biomedical scientist with proven instinct for identifying fundamental molecular events underlying biological function. He specializes in the field of growth factor/cytokine signalling with a particular focus on transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signalling in cancer development. He leads a vibrant, cohesive research team with proven track record of publishing in high impact journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communications and Cell (Total publication: 64 with an average impact factor of 5.5, citation of 45 and H-index of 30). His innovative research capacity has been demonstrated through obtaining open competitive research grants (as chief investigator obtaining grants totalling more than $5m including 7x NHMRC project grants and more than $3.5m went to his laboratory). His international reputation is evidenced by more than 15 fully financed (>$50,000) international conference invitations in the last 10 years.
Dr. Zhu is a chemist turned molecular biologist. He was awarded his PhD in chemistry in 1994 and by then he published 10 articles in chemistry with 3 of them attracted high citations in the field. As a chemist, he made two long lasting contributions: established principles using NMR to study tin-chemistry and synthesized a “football” shaped supermolecule like C60 based on Sn-O bonds.
After joining Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research to begin his biomedical career as a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Zhu single handily established TGF-β signalling research program there by publishing 3x in J. Biol. Chem. in 1999 covering receptor and intra-cellular signalling. His receptor re-orientation-activation model on TGF-β was published more than 12 months earlier than the similar models published in Science and Molecular Cell on Epo receptor. His understanding of specificity of TGF-β /Smad signalling led to a very fruitful collaboration on his idea of using Smad7 to inhibit kidney fibrosis with many publications including 3x J. Am. Soc. Nephrol.
Aided by re-structuring of research programs at Ludwig in 1999, Dr. Zhu started to broaden his interesting into other growth factor and cytokine signalling, particularly in EGF signalling. In addition to publishing in J. Biol. Chem. and Oncogene, a definitive EGFR-ligand complex activation structure was published in Cell in which his team established the back-to-back receptor–ligand activation complex as the biological relevant one.
Meanwhile, continuing with his core interesting on TGF-β signalling, Dr. Zhu’s team established that the TGF-β accessory type III receptor functions as its signalling modulator and is critical for mouse heart development using a knockout model (Mol. Cell. Biol. 2003). More importantly, it’s the first time his team established the concept that TGF-β signalling sensitivity, not just on-and-off signalling, is critical for biological functions under physiological conditions. Applying such concept into gastric tumor and utilizing his then broadened insights into cytokine signalling, Dr. Zhu initiated a new signalling cross-talk project between TGF-β/Smad and IL-6/Stat signalling, resulting in the integration of those two discrete pathway underlining stomach tumor development, published in Nature Medicine (2005). Continuing with this concept of signalling cross-talk resulted in the discovery of EGFR-Stat3 signalling blocking tumour-suppressive TGF-β signalling in H&N cancer (Oncogene, 2013). Work with APC gene dosage dependent TGF-β signalling in colon cancer has been submitted to Nature Cell Biology.
On the other hand, his successful application of TGF-β signalling in kidney fibrosis and his understanding of growth factor-Ras-MAPK signalling led him to turn his attention into study their signalling cooperation in the fundamental cellular process, epithelia-to-meschymal transition (EMT) in the context of tumor invasion and metastasis. In mid-2006, Dr. Zhu took his team to The University of Melbourne and set up the Cancer Signalling Research Laboratory. While the majority of those very fundamental molecular discoveries on this topic are yet to be published, a small part has been published or accepted for publication in J. Proteome Res., Proteomics, Mol. Cell. Proteomics, Growth Factors and Oncogene.
Recently, Dr. Zhu’s lab has discovered the first TGF-b type II receptor regulating molecule, SPSB1 (J. Biol. Chem, 2015) which leads to new direct molecular link to Ras (another J. Biol. Chem, accepted with “for reviewer-only modification”). More importantly, he has developed a set of new research tools for live single cell signalling (Growth Factors). The application results in the publication in Nature Communications (2014) and Molecular Cancer (2015).
Dr. Zhu was the first member from China invited to the NHMRC grants review panel. He is the chairman of Victoria branch and vice president of Australia Chinese Association of Biomedical Sciences. He has mentored 5x postdoctoral fellows, 6x PhD students and over 15 honours and AMS students to completion. He has constantly acted as reviewer/assessor for many journals and national and international grant agencies, including serving on the NHMRC project grant review panel and Growth Factors editorial board. He has served as special issue guest editors for “Enzyme Research” and “Growth Factors”. He has also been organizers of many international meetings and session chairs. He is a co-convener of “TGF-β Downunder 2011”.
