Yichen Zhou, Centre for Cancer Research at Hudson Institute

Dr Yichen Zhou

  • Role: Postdoctoral Scientist

Dr Yichen Zhou is a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Cancer Research, working with the VPCC Next Generation Precision Medicine program led by Prof Ron Firestein.

Yichen completed her PhD with Prof Charles Mackay at Monash University in 2022. During her PhD, she investigated the role of gut microbiota and microbial metabolites in Alzheimer’s disease. After her PhD, Yichen Zhou joined iCamuno Biotherapeutics, and her project focussed on cancer cell therapies utilising induced pluripotent stem cell-derived natural killer cells.

In 2023, Yichen joined the Next Generation Precision Medicine program, where she is currently involved in high throughput functional genomics screens using CRISPR/Cas12 systems to map functional dependencies in diverse cell lines from human paediatric diffuse midline gliomas.

Selected publications

  • Zhou Y, Xie L, Schröder J, Schuster I, Sun G, Sun YBY, Mariño E, Degli-Esposti MA, Marques FZ, Grubman A, Polo JM, Mackay CR (2023) Dietary fiber and microbiota metabolites confer protection against Alzheimer’s disease via metabolite-sensing GPCRs. Journal of Neuroscience, (accepted).

  • Chen J, Neil JA, Tan JP, Rudraraju R, Mohenska M, Sun YBY, Walters E, Bediaga NG, Sun G, Zhou Y, Li Y, Drew D, Pymm P, Tham WH, Rossello FJ, Nie G, Liu X, Subbarao K, Polo JM (2023) A placental model of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals ACE2-dependent susceptibility and differentiation impairment in syncytiotrophoblasts. Nat Cell Biol, Jul 13, Epub ahead of print.

  • Leinenga G, Bodea LG, Schröder J, Sun G, Zhou Y, Song J, Grubman A, Polo JM, Götz J (2022) Transcriptional signature in microglia isolated from an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model treated with scanning ultrasound. Bioeng Transl Med, 8:e10329.

  • Liu X, Tan JP, Schröder J, Aberkane A, Ouyang JF, Mohenska M, Lim SM, Sun YBY, Chen J, Sun G, Zhou Y, Poppe D, Lister R, Clark AT, Rackham OJL, Zenker J, Polo JM (2021) Modelling human blastocysts by reprogramming fibroblasts into iBlastoids. Nature, 591:627-632.

  • Grubman A, Choo XY, Chew G, Ouyang JF, Sun G, Croft NP, Rossello FJ, Simmons R, Buckberry S, Landin DV, Pflueger J, Vandekolk TH, Abay Z, Zhou Y, Liu X, Chen J, Larcombe M, Haynes JM, McLean C, Williams S, Chai SY, Wilson T, Lister R, Pouton CW, Purcell AW, Rackham OJL, Petretto E, Polo JM (2021) Transcriptional signature in microglia associated with Aβ plaque phagocytosis. Nat Commun, 12:3015.