Assistant Member
Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention
Department of Cancer Prevention and Population Science
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Science Building , S704
Elm and Carlton Streets
Buffalo New York USA 14263
Tel: 716-845-3103
E-mail: Hua.Zhao@RoswellPark.org

Dr. Hua Zhao, PhD, joined the staff of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in 2006 as a HRI Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology, the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Science.

Dr. Zhao earned his Doctoral degree in Molecular and Cancer Epidemiology from the University of Texas, School of Public Health at Houston in 2003. He earned his Masters degree in Cell Biology from the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China in 1998 and his Bachelor’s degree in Genetics from Fudan University, Shanghai, China in 1995. Dr. Zhao was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Epidemology at the University of Texas, Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.

Dr. Zhao is a member of the American Society of Preventive Oncology, the American Society of Human Genetics, the American Association of Cancer Research and the American Public Health Association.

Dr. Zhao has authored or co-authored over 43 journal articles, book chapters and abstracts. He has presented at lectures and seminars worldwide.

Dr. Zhao’s research focuses on molecular epidemiology and how individual’s genotypic and phenotypic variations might modify cancer risk. He is also interested in how inherited genetic factors might impact prognosis after a diagnosis of cancer. Currently, Dr. Zhao has three research projects. In Project 1, he is investigating how genetic variations in human miRNA genes might modify risk of familial ovarian or breast cancers. He has discovered several genetic variants in miRNA genes which regulate key oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes. In Project 2, he is investigating whether DNA repair capacity (DRC) of oxidative DNA damage is a risk predictor for melanoma. In this study, he has developed a panel of unique phenotypic assays to assess individual’s DRC in different pathways. In Project 3, he is studying whether genetic variants in genes involved in carboplatin/paclitaxel action pathways might impact chemotherapy treatment response in patients with ovarian cancer.