Dr Zhou has been very active in cancer research, mainly focusing on cancer and leukemia area. His research is centered on translational application. He has published more than 49 papers in international peer-review journal, many in high-impact journals, such as Blood, Leukemia, Oncogene, Journal of Hematology and oncology, etc.                                                                                     Dr Zhou’s most significant research contribution is related to identification and elucidation of the role of FTL3 (fms-related tyrosine kinase 3) inhibitor in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and molecular mechanism of resistance, which leads to develop more effective anti-leukemia therapy. He first discovered increased expression of FLT3 ligand and Survivin (an inhibitor of apoptosis protein) are responsible for resistance of FLT3 inhibitor (Blood 2009;113:4052-62.). This study was highlighted on the cover and editorial “Inside Blood” of the same issue. The resistance mechanism was validated in a large clinical trials conducted by Investigators in Johns Hopkins and knockout mouse model. Another study of combination of FLT3 inhibitor and HDAC (PLoS One. 2011;6(5):e19798) also led to a Phase II trial in AML in National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore.   Dr Zhou’s recent research focuses on the role of protein tyrosine phosphatase in leukemia and solid tumors. He first reported that PRL-3 (Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver 3, or PTP4A3) plays an important role in leukemogenesis and implicates in drug resistance. Another emerging area is dysregulation of epigenetic factors in leukemia. He is interested to examine the molecular mechanism of LIN28B, a microRNA regulator and a stem cell reprogramming factor, in leukemia stem cells (LSCs).