Jia Zhu

CLINICAL AND RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Dr. Zhu’s research studies the tissue-based immune response to herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection in humans. She has spent most of her career focused on understanding intricate interactions between HSV and the local immune responses in human skin. Early on she developed novel laboratory tools to detect how immune cells behave in genital tissues during the active and latent phases of herpes infection. These pivotal studies led to the plausible explanation on how local inflammation by chronic HSV reactivation increases HIV acquisition, as well as the discovery of tissue-resident CD8+ T cells accumulating near sensory nerve endings and performing immune surveillance and rapid clearance at sites of virus release. Currently, the lab is using high-dimensional multiplexed immunofluorescence staining in combination with transcriptional analysis to characterize the spatial-temporal relationship between T cells and the surrounding network of immune and non-immune cells in the tissue.

Research Interests

Genital HSV infection, tissue-resident-memory T-cell, mucosal immunity, viral-host interactions, neuro-immune crosstalk, multi-parameter in situ staining, high-dimensional imaging analysis, microfluidic device, skin-on-chip

Academic and Medical Appointments

Associate Professor, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, 2019-present

Associate Professor in Research, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2018-present

Affiliated Investigator, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, 2013-2019

Assistant Professor in Research, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2012-2018

Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2011-2012

Education and Training

Research Fellow, Microbiology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 1999-2003

Postdoctoral Fellow, Virology, Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, 1996-1998

Postdoctoral Fellow, Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 1994-1996

PhD in Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai, PRC, 1989-1994

BE in Biochemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, PRC, 1985-1989