News

June 2023

  • Our lab has moved to the University of Michigan! We enjoyed our time at VCU Pharmaceutics & PharmEng immensely. Thank you for all the support for our lab!

  • Dr. Qiyan Wang joined our lab. Welcome!

March 2023

  • Dr. You Xu joined our lab. Welcome!

August 2022

  • We welcome two new group members: postdoc Dr. Suling Yang and graduate student Yasir Alshehry!

June 2022

  • Our group received VCU Commercialization Fund to develop our proprietary cGAS-STING activating cancer immunotherapeutics. Thanks to the Board reviewers and VCU Research! This is our second VCU Commercialization Fund this year!

  • Our group received $2.3 M R01 grant from National Cancer Institute! We are beyond grateful to all the previous and current group members, mentors, collaborators, reviewers, and last but not least, NCI and taxpayers!

  • Our group welcomes VSU undergraduate students Jenille Jade Llorico and Jaila Walton to join our group this Summer as Pharmaceutical Engineering REU and Massey Cancer Center REU students!

May 2022

  • Congrats to Dr. Ting Su and Dr. Yu Zhang for their promotion to Instructors! So well deserved!

  • Our group welcomes VCU undergraduate Shaheer Alam to join our group! Shaheer will also be in VCU Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Program (HSURP) in Summer 2022.

  • Congrats to Xiang Liu and coauthors for a circRNA paper accepted by Journal of Controlled Release!

  • Congrats to Dr. Ting Su and coauthors for a paper accepted by Advanced Science! A good start for more to come.

  • Congrats to Dr. Julian Zhu for the Excellence in Research Award, which is given to one faculty member across all ranks each year at VCU School of Pharmacy

  • Congrats to Shurong Zhou for taking home the John Wood Award from Department of Pharmaceutics, VCU School of Pharmacy. Shurong was also selected as one of the finalists for the Dean’s Award. Double shots, again!

April 2022

  • Our group received $0.8 M Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society, the largest non-profit cancer research foundation in the United States. We are beyond grateful to the Society and its generous donors!

March 2022

  • Our group received a $2 M Breast Cancer Breakthrough Award Level II -Partnering option with collaborators from DoD/CDMRP/BCRP to study circular RNA vaccines for breast cancer immunotherapy.

February 2022

  • Our group received a $2 M NIH/NIAID R01 grant to study circular RNA vaccines.

January 2022

  • A new paper led by Wei Tang was published in Nanoscale, in the issue honoring Dr. Zhu as one of the 2022 Nanoscale Emerging Investigators (https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/NR/D1NR06512B). Congratulations!

  • A new paper led by Tingting Shen was published in Theranostics (https://www.thno.org/v12p0035.htm). Congratulations!

November 2021

  • Our group received VCU Commercialization Fund to develop our proprietary RNA vaccines. Thanks to the Board reviewers and VCU Research!

September 2021

  • Our group received an NIH/NIGMS MIRA (R35 grant) totaling $1.9 M for the next 5 years! Thanks, NIGMS and the trainees/mentors/collaborators who have made this possible!

June 2021

  • Our group welcomes MD-PhD student Ms. Lauren Dain! She will rotate in our lab. Hope you enjoy our group and our research!

  • Our group also welcomes REU student Ms. Diana Barr from UMass-Amherst! Wish you have a joyful experience!

  • Julian received the Best Abstract Award from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in recognition of our RNA vaccine research spearheaded by Dr. Yu Zhang in our group. Good job to the team!

May 2021

  • Julian received the Emerging Faculty Scholar Award from VCU School of Pharmacy. This award recognizes only one non-tenured faculty each year from the school.

  • Our group, teamed up with Massey Cancer Center collaborators, has been awarded one of the only two Massey Cancer Center Molecules to Medicines pilot grants to study melanoma RNA vaccines.

Mar. 2021

  • Congrats to Ting Su for taking home the best poster award (postdoc) in VCU School of Pharmacy 2021 Research & Career day!

  • Congrats to Shurong Zhou for taking home the Shwartz Award from VCU School of Pharmacy, and the best poster award (graduate student) in VCU School of Pharmacy 2021 Research & Career day. Double shots!

Jan. 2021

  • We welcome two new postdocs Drs. Wei Tang and Lei Mei.

December 2020

  • Julian was nominated as a full member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society (www.sigmaxi.org). Such an honor to be listed together with so many science/technology/education heroes!

  • Julian received the 2020 Early Career Investigator Award from METAvivor to study combination immunotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Thank you for your generous support, METAvivor and donors!

November 2020

  • An invited TEDx talk to the next generation: on TEDxYouth@RVA, Julian was invited to discuss the team’s research in COVID-19 vaccine patches. Check it out http://tedxrva.com/tedxyouthrva/youth/

  • Radio discussion for research dissemination to the general public: Julian discussed the team’s research in COVID-19 vaccine delivery on radio station: with good reason. Check it out https://withgoodreasonradio.org/episode/covid-the-threat-in-the-air/

  • We welcome Mr. John Pham to the group. John is currently an undergraduate student in VCU honors college.

October 2020

  • Dr. Lujun Hu’s paper on ExoHCR, an interesting liquid biopsy approach to exosomal biomarker profiling, was accepted for publication in Biophysics Reports! Congratulations to Lujun and the team!

August 2020

  • An NIH R21 award. Our lab and collaborators are grateful to be awarded with an NIH R21 to study glioma radioimmunotherapy! We thank NIH/NINDS, VCU CCTR and Massey Cancer Center, our collaborators, and the reviewers for the support. 

  • Our lab welcomed new graduate student, Ms. Nadia Tasnim Ahmed. Nadia came to us from University of South Florida. She is among the first class of our newly launched Pharmaceutical Engineering PhD program. 

  • Our lab also welcomed a new VCU undergraduate student, Mr. Moazan Rehman! 

May 2020

  • Our own Senior Ms. Janet Cole was accepted to the PharmD program of VCU School of Pharmacy! Congratulations!! Janet has done an impressive job during her stay in our lab. 

  • Our research on COVID-19 vaccine has been highlighted by VCU News! See the story here. 

  • We were grateful to receive a VCU COVID-19 Rapid Research Funding to develop a COVID-19 vaccine delivery system.

  • An Advanced Therapeutics paper! Dr. Yu Zhang's paper on a responsive STING-activating nanovaccines for melanoma immunotherapy has been accepted for publication. This marks the first independent research paper from our lab at VCU. Congratulations!! 

​April 2020

  • Julian was accepted to be a member of the VCU Center On Health Disparities (CoHD)! 

​March 2020

  • A Medicine in Drug Discovery paper! Shurong's review paper "Delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy" was accepted for publication. Great job and congrats to Shurong, Wenjie, and Janet!  

  • An ACS Applied Bio Materials paper! Drs. Tingting Shen and Yu Zhang's review paper, "Nucleic Acid Immunotherapeutics for Cancer", was accepted for publication. Great job and congrats to all!  

​February 2020

  • Zhu Lab and collaborators were grateful to receive a pilot grant from the Central Virginia Center on Drug Abuse Research to study drug delivery for anti-opioid therapy. ​

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Drug delivery for cancer immunotherapy", in VCU Department of Medicinal Chemistry.

 December 2019

  • A Science Advances paper! "A Bi-adjuvant Nanovaccine that Potentiates Immunogenicity of Neoantigen for Combination Immunotherapy of Colorectal Cancer", in collaboration with Qianqian Ni, Fuwu Zhang at the Shawn Chen Lab at NIH was accepted for publication in Science Advances! Congratulations!!!

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Drug delivery systems and nucleic acid therapeutics for cancer", in the annual retreat of the Developmental Therapeutics Program, VCU Massey Cancer Center.

October 2019

  • Julian enjoyed leading the poster judging for the VCU School of Pharmacy annual Research and Career Day! Great and diverse research presented by graduate students, postdocs, and PharmD students. 

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Drug delivery using biocompatible bioconjugates and nanoparticles”, in VCU Pharmacology and Toxicology Seminar Series.

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Responsive STING-activating Nanovaccines", in the 15th Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) in Munich, Germany. 

  • Julian delivered talks on "Cancer nanomedicine: applications in immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and gene therapy" in Nankai University, Tianjin University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Shanghai Jiaotong University. 

  • We welcome a baby daughter, Claire Zhang, from Drs. Yu Zhang and Tingting Shen!!! 

  • Visiting graduate student, Mr. Jialong Qi, joined the lab. Welcome! 

  • Postdoc associate Dr. Furong Cheng joined the lab. Welcome! 

  • Wenjie Chen won a runner up postdoc presentation award at the VCU School of Pharmacy Research and Career Day! Congratulations!

September 2019

  • An invited review paper "STING activation in cancer immunotherapy" by Drs. Ting Su, Yu Zhang, et al, was accepted for publication in Theranostics. Congrats and thanks to all coauthors! 

  • Julian delivered a talk, “Using DNA/RNA as Drugs: From Discovery to Development”, in VCU Discovery Dialogues.

August 2019

  • Our first graduate student, Ms. Shurong Zhou, joined the lab. Welcome!​

  • Julian received a VA-VCU pilot award, under the mentorship of the great Dr. Huiping Zhou! Thank you, Dr. Zhou, Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, and VCU School of Medicine! ​

  • Julian received a Presidential Research Quest Fund from VCU! Thank you, VCU! Shout out to VCU Quest 2025: Together We Transform!​

  • VCU senior undergraduate student, Janét Cole, joined the lab. Welcome! ​

  • Julian enjoyed the Spokesperson Training from the American Cancer Society! Thank you, American Cancer Society! ​

June 2019

  • Our new lab renovation is officially completed! Happy to move to our new home in Smith Building 615, 616, and 619, adjacent to lab office 618!  Thank VCU School of Pharmacy for the great support! ​

  • Julian was happy to deliver a talk, "Nucleic acid therapeutics", to the Williamsburg VA KIWANIS club. ​

  • VCU undergraduate student, Kush Shah, joined the lab. Welcome! 

​May 2019

  • Visiting scholar, Prof. Weinan Wang, joined the lab. Welcome! ​

  • Visiting scholar, Prof. Lujun Hu, joined the lab. Welcome! ​

April 2019

  • Julian received an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS IRG). Thank you, ACS!​

  • Julian received a VCU Massey Cancer Center Pilot Project! Thank you, Massey Cancer Center!​

  • Julian received an Endowment Fund from the VCU C. Kenneth and Diane Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR)! Thank you, CCTR! 

  • Dr. Yu Zhang et al's invited review, "Nanovaccines for Cancer Immunotherapy" was accepted for publication in WIREs Nanomedicine & Nanobiotechnology. Congratulations to all!​

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Albumin-binding DNA/RNA therapeutics: efficient and versatile delivery", in the RNA Consortium Meeting 2019 held at the City of Hope, CA. ​

  • Julian enjoyed the great research presentations in NIH-AACR Cancer, Autoimmunity, and Immunology Conference held at the NIH, Bethesda, MD.​

  • Julian enjoyed the great research presentations in NCI RNA Biology Symposium, Bethesda, MD. ​

  • Dr. Yongjian Wang from Nankai University, China, visited the lab. Welcome!

​March 2019

  • Julian was happy to host Dr. Kam W. Leong from Columbia University for a department seminar talk! Such an inspirational talk from a trailblazer! 

  • Julian presented "In vivo pharmacoimaging and delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics and probes", in the Pittcon 2019 held in Philly, PA. ​

  • CCTR graduate student, Cory Fines, joined the lab for a rotation. Welcome!​

February 2019

  • Postdoc associate Dr. Wenjie Chen joined the lab. Welcome! ​

Janurary 2019

  • Postdoc associates Drs. Tingting Shen and Yu Zhang joined the lab. Welcome! ​

  • Julian delivered a talk, “Reinvent nanomedicines for drug delivery in combination cancer therapy” in the annual retreat of the Developmental Therapeutics Program, VCU Massey Cancer Center.​

December 2018

  • Our first postdoc associate Dr. Ting Su joined the lab. Welcome! ​

  • An invited review "Advances in the immunotherapy of type I diabetes" was accepted for publication in Advanced Drug Delivery Review. Congratulations!​

  • Our first undergraduate student, Jay Bisen, from the VCU Guaranteed Medical Program, joined the lab. Welcome, Jay!​

November 2018

  • Julian received a KL2 Scholar Award from the VCU C. Kenneth and Diane Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR)! Thank you, CCTR! Thank you mentors Dr. Doug Sweet and Sandro da Rocha!​

October 2018

  • Julian was happy to host Dr. Leaf Huang from UNC for a department seminar talk, which is always a joy!​

  • Julian was happy to host Dr. Peng Huang from the Okayama Medical Innovation Center, Japan, for a departmental talk. ​

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Lymph node-targeted delivery of CpG-ODN and neoantigen vaccines for personalized cancer immunotherapy", in the 14th Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) in Seattle, WA. ​

  • Julian delivered a talk, "Nanotechnologies and Aptamers in Cancer: From Drug Delivery to Cancer Detection", in the Developmental Therapeutics Program of VCU Massey Cancer Center.   

  • Julian presented "Albumin-binding vaccines for efficient lymph node delivery in combination cancer immunotherapy", in the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting.                               

​August 2018

​July 2018

  • The Zhu Lab officially started!