Office:	565 Bridgeside Point I
	100 Technology Drive
	Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Phone:	412-383-0447
Fax:	412-383-9055
E-mail:	bzhu@pitt.edu

Education
	BS, Peking University, 2006
	PhD, Pennsylvania State University, 2012

Training
	Post-Doctoral Fellow, Baylor College of Medicine, 2017

By utilizing a state-of-the-art algorithm that can identify all superimposed oscillations in an unbiased manner, Dr Zhu's lab discovered a cell-autonomous mammalian 12h-clock that runs independently from the circadian clock to regulate 12h oscillations of gene expression and metabolism (Zhu et al., Cell Metabolism, 2017, Antoulas et al., PloS One, 2018, Zhu et al., JES, 2018). Genes under strong 12h-clock regulation in the liver are enriched in the whole central dogma information flow process (ranging from pre-mRNA splicing, polyadenylation, RNA decay, protein translation, translocation across ER membrane, protein folding and processing in the ER and protein transport from ER to Golgi) in an XBP1s-dependent manner. Cell-autonomous 12h rhythms of gene expression can be entrained by ER and metabolic stress cues in vitro. Intriguingly, the mammalian 12h transcriptome is also highly conserved in marine animals possessing a circatidal clock, therefore implying that mammalian 12h-clock may evolve from the ancient circatidal clock. Dr. Zhu's lab is currently investigating the regulation as well as the physiological/pathological functions of the 12h-clock, with an emphasis on its roles in maintaining hepatic metabolic homeostasis and preventing aging-associated diseases. A combination of state-of-the-art computational, biochemical, genetic, cellular, imaging and genomic approaches is currently utilized in the lab. For a detailed description of the research performed in Zhu lab, please visit http://www.bzhulab.com.

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Selected Publications: