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Advancing Nucleic Acid Therapeutics for Genetic Disorders
The Zhou Lab is dedicated to developing Nucleic Acid Therapeutics (NAT) for genetic disorders. By harnessing state-of-the-art nucleic acid technologies, we aim to translate experimental therapies into real-world clinical applications, offering hope for patients with unmet medical needs.
Our Research
Our projects span the preclinical therapeutic development pipeline, including the identification of novel therapeutic targets, the design of different RNA therapeutic approaches (including ASO, siRNA, microRNA, RNA editing, and mRNA therapy), tissue/cell-specific delivery, validation in different model systems (cellular and animal), downstream functional assays, and bridge the gap between bench and bedside to bring treatments to patients.
Collaborations
Our lab has collaborated with academic research groups at UCL on expanding the NAT technology to a wide range of genetic disorders. These include research in muscular dystrophies (Francesco Muntoni, Jennifer Morgan and Giovanni Baranello), respiratory disorders (Hannah Mitchison and Stephen Hart), neurological conditions (Mary Reilly, Manju Kurian, and Amy McTague), inborn errors of metabolism (Paul Gissen, Philippa Mills, Kevin Mills, Wendy Heywood), and vasculitis (Ying Hong and Despina Eleftheriou).
Our lab has a longstanding expertise in neuromuscular disorders, including spinal muscular atrophy, congenital myopathy, and muscular dystrophies. We work closely with the Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health to advance research in this field.
Training Opportunities
Our Lab is committed to nurturing the next generation of scientists. We offer training opportunities from numerous programmes, including e-COST Action, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks, China Scholarship Council Training Programme, UCL Child Health Research PhD Programme, and UCL MSc and iBSc research projects.
Lab Members
Project Manager: Catherine Ryan
Senior Research Fellow: Dr Jinhong Meng
Research Fellows:
- Dr Ella Whittle
- Dr Corinna Schlosser
- Dr Qiang Zhang
- Dr Charalambos Demetriou* (with Baranello Lab)
- Dr Tomasz Tomkiewicz* (with Gissen Lab)
- Dr Reddy Vootukuri* (with Mills Lab)
- Dr Laia Torres Masjoan* (with Muntoni Lab)
Research Assistants:
- Sean Briggs
- Emma Graham
- Shona Mackie
Clinical PhD Fellow: Siyamini Sivananthan* (with Gissen Lab)
PhD Students:
- Yasin Shafi
- Noura Alshalan
- Luqiao Tan
- Barbora Cerna* (with McTague Lab)
- Shuzhi Cheng
- Fady Guirguis* (UCL+ NIH Joint PhD)
- Parth Patel
Visiting staff: Aristides Lopez-Marquez (Universitat de Barcelona)
*Joint supervision
Alumni Lab Members
- Dr Mathilde Sandon (research fellow, 2018-2020)
- Dr Bruno Doreste (research fellow, 2018-2022)
- Dr Sara Aguti (research fellow, 2018-2022)
- Lijin Liu (visiting PhD, 2024)
- Dr Anna Kowala (research fellow, 2023-2024)
- Dr Rebecca Jeyaraj (clinical research fellow, 2023-2024)
- Hou Wang Lam (research assistant, 2023-2024)
- Shunyi Ma (research assistant, 2022-2024)
- Elena Tybulewicz (research assistant, 2023-2024)
- Jiwon Kim (research assistant, 2024-2025)
Main Funding
UK Research and Innovation (MRC and EPSRC), Wellcome Trust, NIHR GOSH BRC, The Royal society, Harrington Discovery Institute, Oxford-Harrington Centre, Muscular Dystrophy UK, Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, SMA Europe, UCL Technology Fund, Rosetrees Trust, RTW Charitable Foundation, LifeArc.
Zhou Lab Publications
Relevant Links
- UPNAT- UK Platform for Nucleic Acid Therapies for Rare Disease
- EFFecT - A European Training Program to Foster the Full Therapeutic Potential of Antisense Technology across Tissues
- TransNAT- Developing safe targeted Nucleic Acid Therapies
- TInT- Genomics England Therapeutic Innovations and Trials Research Domain
- Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Scholar
- NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre
- UCL Cell, Gene and Novel Therapies MSc programme
