Dr. Zhao is a research scientist in Prof. Michael Snyder’s lab at Stanford University, studying precancerous colon polyps and colorectal cancer. Currently, she integrates single-cell multiomics with high-resolution spatial transcriptomics to investigate transcriptional and epigenetic changes during tumor progression. Her other research activities include understanding the molecular consequences of exercise (MoTrPAC), building reference haps for human intestine (HuBMAP) and advancing precision medicine in heart, lung and blood disorders (TOPMed). Dr. Zhao holds a PhD in Genomics and Genetics from EMBL and Heidelberg University, Germany, where she studied the contribution of genetic variants to gene regulation using a fly system.