Professor Zhao’s research interests cover developmental biology and cancer biology. His laboratory studies the mechanism of neural crest differentiation, germ layer formation and cell migration, and how these multiple events affect the embryonic patterning. In the past few years, he also studied the tumorigenesis of neuroblastoma. Recently his group utilized TALEN and Cas9 nucleases to do gene targeting in Xenopus, zebrafish, and stem cells. He has published over 70 papers in high impact journals including PNAS, Development, EMBO Journal, Nucleic Acids Research and Journal of Biological Chemistry. He serves as reviewers for various magazines including PNAS, Development, and Plos Biology. His research is supported by the funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Hong Kong Research Grants Council.