Education
1998-2002 Ph.D. degree in Computational Chemistry (Professor Gilles Klopman, thesis advisor) Department of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University
Thesis Title: Quantitative structure-activity relationship studies of the cancer-related properties of organic molecules
1995-1998 M.S. degree in Applied Chemistry (Professor Nai Shi, thesis advisor) Department of Technical Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
Thesis Title: Activity and Conformation Changes of Dihydrofolate Reductase in Reverse Micelles
1991-1995 B.S. degree in Inorganic Chemistry (Professor Yuwen Liu, research advisor) Department of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China
Research Project: Study the Gas Sensitivity of Novel Porphyrin Films
Professional Experience
2022-Present Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Rowan University
2021-Present Member, National Academies Committee, National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
2021-present Adjunct Professor, Division of Environmental & Population Health Biosciences, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
2020-2022 Professor, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden
2020-Present Member, NIEHS Center for Environmental Exposure and Disease, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Center, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
2016-Present Member, Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
2020-2022 Professor, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden
2011-2022 Member, The Rutgers Center for Computational & Integrative Biology
2017-2020 Graduate Program Director, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden
2016-2020 Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden
2015-2020 Associate Member, NIEHS Center for Environmental Exposure and Disease, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Center, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
2015-2019 Member, Scientific Advisory Committee on Alternative Toxicological Methods (SACATM) at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
2011-2016 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden
2014-2016 Visiting Professor, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, China
2006-2011 Research Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2002-2006 Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University; Research Advisor: Gilles Klopman, Ph.D.
Memberships in Professional Societies
2011 – Present American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology
2006 - Present Society of Toxicology
2006 - Present American Chemical Society
2006 - 2011 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
Professional Service
Within the Professions:
2021 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Dutch Research Council Talent Programme Grant
2021-Present Associate Editor, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
2021 Ad Hoc Reviewer, European Research Council Consolidator Grant
2021 Guest editor, Journal of Hazardous Materials
2020 Guest editor, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
2019-Present Associate editor, Frontiers in Toxicology, Computational Toxicology and Informatics
2019 Ad Hoc Reviewer, NCATS ASPIRE Design Challenge Grant
2017-Present Editorial board member, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
2017-Present ASCCT Annual Meeting Organizing Committee
2016 Ad Hoc Reviewer, US Army Grant
2016-Present Peer reviewer of US EPA’s draft Provisional Peer-Reviewed Toxicity Values
2015 Ad Hoc Reviewer, U.S. EPA STAR Fellowship
2014-2019 Member, Acute Toxicity Study Group
Industrial Collaborations/Consultants:
2020-Present Lubrizol, Cleveland, OH
2019-Present ExxonMobil, Clinton, NJ
2011-Present MultiCase Inc., Cleveland, OH
2017 Sanofi, Bridgewater, NJ
2014 Sigmapharm Laboratories, Bensalem, PA
2013 Biofunc Research, Cleveland, OH
Research Grants
Active:
NIEHS (R01ES031080) Zhu (PI) 05/19/20 – 02/28/25
Mechanism-Driven Virtual Adverse Outcome Pathway Modeling for Hepatotoxicity. Total cost: $2,271,161
NSF (2211489) Zhu (leading PI of multi-PI project) 09/01/2022 - 08/31/2026
Collaborative Research: III: Medium: New Machine Learning Empowered Nanoinformatics System for Advancing Nanomaterial Design. Total cost: $800,000 ($350,000 to Zhu lab).
NIEHS (R35ES031709) Zhu (co-PI) 07/16/21- 6/30/29
Discovering Chemical Activity Networks-Predicting Bioactivity Based on Structure. Subaward to Zhu lab: $576,818, PI: Robyn Tanguay at Oregon State University
ExxonMobil Zhu (PI) 01/01/20 – 12/31/22
Predictive and validated estrogen receptor models. Total cost: $240,005
Pending:
NIH Zhu (PI) Requested duration: 4 years
Virtual nanostructure simulation (VINAS) database portal. Total cost: $1,545,858
Received 6.0 percentile score from a NIH study section. Council meeting will be in September 2022.
Completed:
NIEHS (R15ES023148) Zhu (PI) 08/09/13 – 07/31/22
Mechanistic evaluation of chemicals that induce oral acute toxicity by novel read-across approaches using public big data. Total cost: $940,888
Lubrizol Zhu (PI) 05/01/20 – 12/31/20
Develop a hybrid DART model based on both chemical descriptors and biological data obtained from public domain. Total cost: $25,000
Colgate-Palmolive Zhu (PI) 5/1/17–6/30/20
Support read-across study of animal acute toxicity using public biological data. Total cost: $80,000
Rutgers Provost Multidisciplinary
Research Grant Zhu (PI) 1/1/18–12/31/19
Digital Nano: Developing Virtual Nanomaterial Simulation (VINAS) Toolbox for Intelligent Nanomodeling Total cost: $14,000
The Johns Hopkins Center
for Alternatives to Animal
Testing Zhu (PI) 3/1/16–2/28/19
Advance Predictive Modeling of Acute Toxicity by Big Data. Total cost: $70,000
Rutgers ORED-RUN-RBHS Grant
in Big Data Analytics Zhu (PI) 7/1/17–6/30/18
Big Data, Modeling and Validation to Advance Hepatotoxicity Prediction. Total cost: $40,000
Rutgers Provost
Research Grant Zhu (PI) 1/1/17–12/31/17
CIIPro: a new read-across ADME-Tox predictor based on big data tool. Total cost: $3,390
Rutgers University
Research Council Zhu (PI) 7/1/16–6/30/17
Advance QSAR to Big Data Profiling. Total cost: $3,920
Rutgers University
Environmental Health
Pilot Grant Zhu (PI) 1/1/17–3/31/17
From QSAR to big data profiling: the new generation of animal toxicity modeling. Total cost: $4,800
Rutgers University
Environmental Health
Pilot Grant Zhu (PI) 7/1/15–2/29/16
From QSAR to big data profiling: the new generation of animal toxicity modeling. Total cost: $15,000
Colgate-Palmolive Zhu (PI) 4/1/13–6/30/15
Profiling chemicals based on public bioassay data for the development of predictive computational acute toxicity model. Total cost: $40,000
Rutgers University
Research Council Zhu (PI) 4/30/13–5/1/14 Quantitative structure in vitro-in vivo relationship. Total cost: $3,000
Colgate-Palmolive Zhu (PI) 7/1/11–6/30/13
Predictive Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) modeling of reproductive and developmental toxicity using integrated chemical and biological (HTS profiles) descriptors of molecules. Total cost: $35,414
The Johns Hopkins Center for
Alternatives to Animal Testing Zhu (PI) 2/1/08–1/31/11
Use of high throughput screening methods improves computational models for in vivo acute toxicity tests. Total cost: $45,000
EPA (RD832720) Zhu (co-PI of project 2) 9/1/05 – 8/31/10
Carolina environmental bioinformatics research center. Total cost: $4,500,000 (co-PI of $725,000 sub-award, PI: Tropsha)