Bo Zhou

Areas of Expertise

• Human genetics/genomics
• Developmental Biology
• Genomics technology development
• Neuroscience
• Bioinformatics

Professional Summary

Genome structural changes, particularly those involving large, recently evolved human segmental duplications and other complex alterations, are key drivers of neurodevelopmental disorders. We developed methods to fully resolve these sequence changes for the first time, revealing previously unknown layers of biology and enabling detailed future investigations into their functional impact. Our research has shown that structural changes in uniquely human and inherently unstable genomic regions significantly contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders. Building on these insights, my lab will

1) develop and apply innovative genomic methods to understand how complex structural changes in previously unresolvable human genomic regions influence neurodevelopmental phenotypes, and

2) build cellular models including neural organoids to characterize and investigate their mechanistic roles in neurodevelopment, with a special emphasis on those involving human-specific sequences.

The goal of the lab is to uncover not only the fundamental processes driving human neurodevelopment and its dysregulation, contributing to disorders with early-life origins, but also to provide insights into the molecular blueprint that makes us human.