E-mail: huizhang001@cuhk.edu.hk
Administrative support: Ms Lily Yu
Telephone (office): (852) 3513-3177 / 3505-1272
Dr. ZHANG Hui
張輝副教授
Associate Professor (Clinical), Department of Paediatrics
MD (Guangzhou Medical University), MSc, PhD (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Postdoctoral Fellow (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
Biography
Dr. Hui ZHANG is Associate Professor (Clinical) in the Department of Paediatrics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and a consultant paediatric haematologist-oncologist at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. He is a clinician-scientist whose work spans the genetics of childhood leukaemia susceptibility, pharmacogenomics of high-risk disease, and the clinical translation of cellular immunotherapy.
His laboratory and clinical programmes have defined functional roles of inherited variants in GATA3 and CDKN2A in childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) risk, treatment response and relapse, including work published in Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Blood, Clinical Cancer Research and Leukemia. In parallel, he has led multi-centre development of anti-CLL1 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for children with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Dr. Zhang was the first paediatric haematologist-oncologist from mainland China to be supported by the U.S. St. Baldrick’s Foundation as an International Scholar, and he currently leads pharmacogenomic and susceptibility studies of high-risk childhood leukaemia in Chinese populations. Since returning from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2017 he has published more than 40 SCI papers as first, co-first, corresponding or co-corresponding author, with a cumulative impact factor approaching 300. He is a PhD and postdoctoral supervisor and serves as Secretary of the Leukaemia Group of the National Health Commission Expert Committee on Childhood Blood Diseases and Malignant Tumours.
Research Interests
• Genetic susceptibility of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), including inherited variation at GATA3, CDKN2A and related loci
• Pharmacogenomics of high-risk childhood leukaemia and mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance (asparaginase, methotrexate, glucocorticoids)
• Individualised therapy for relapsed/refractory childhood leukaemia
• Cellular immunotherapy, including anti-CLL1 CAR T-cell therapy for paediatric AML and blinatumomab-based strategies in B-ALL
• Immune modulation, T-cell profiling and measurable residual disease (MRD) monitoring
Clinical Expertise
• Childhood blood diseases and paediatric haematology/oncology
• Diagnosis and risk-adapted treatment of childhood acute leukaemia
• Management of relapsed and refractory leukaemia, including immunotherapy and CAR-T
• Translational trial design linking germline genomics, pharmacogenomics and clinical outcome
Honorary Appointments
• Associate Professor (Clinical), Department of Paediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Honorary Consultant in Paediatrics, Hong Kong Children’s Hospital
• PhD Supervisor and Postdoctoral Supervisor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Professional and Public Service
• Secretary, Leukaemia Specialty Group, National Health Commission Expert Committee on Childhood Blood Diseases and Malignant Tumours (2023–present)
• Member and Secretary, Youth Committee, Chinese Pediatric Society, Chinese Medical Association (2019–2025)
• Vice-Chair, Paediatric Oncology Committee, Futang Children’s Medical Development Research Center
• Member, First Committee, National Alliance of Paediatric Haematology-Oncology Experts (2018–present)
• Youth Committee Member, Pediatric Haematology-Oncology, China Anti-Cancer Association (2014–present)
• Member, American Society of Hematology (2014–present)
• Member, the Basic science laboratory Committee of Asian Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Group (APHOG), since 2026.6
• Vice-chairperson of Basic science laboratory Committee of Asian Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Group, since 2026.9
Honours and Awards
• 2014 St. Baldrick’s Foundation International Scholar (USA) — first paediatric haematologist-oncologist from mainland China supported by the Foundation
• 2014 First Prize, Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Award (ranked 8th), “Transcriptional regulation in leukaemia pathogenesis and therapy”
• 2018 Guangzhou High-level Health Talent — Key Medical Talent
• 2022 / 2023 Candidate, Shulan Medical Youth Award
• 2023 Fujian Provincial High-level Talent (Category C)
Selected Research Grants
Role of Macrophage Impairment in Childhood B-cell ALL Susceptibility with Inherited CDKN2A Loss of Function. CUHK / Project 14125326. PI. HKD 1,000,000. 1 Jul 2026 – 30 Jun 2030.
Systematic study of genetic susceptibility to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Fujian. Fujian Provincial Health Commission Major Project 2022ZQNZD012. PI. RMB 3,000,000. Jul 2023 – Jun 2027.
Inherited GATA3 variation increases childhood susceptibility to Ph-like ALL by promoting DNA double-strand breaks in B lymphocytes. National Natural Science Foundation of China 82170152. PI. RMB 530,000. Jan 2022 – Dec 2025.
Mechanisms by which inherited coding variants in CDKN2A confer susceptibility to childhood ALL. Fujian Natural Science Foundation 2023J011313. PI. RMB 100,000. Aug 2023 – Jul 2026.
GATA3 rs3824662 variation promotes asparaginase resistance in B-ALL cells through autophagy activation. National Natural Science Foundation of China (2020 cycle). PI.
Pharmacogenomics of High-Risk Childhood Leukemia in China. St. Baldrick’s Foundation 522589 & 318318. PI. USD 230,000 + USD 300,000. 2014–2019.
Fenretinide-induced NF-κB inhibition and chemosensitisation in acute myeloid leukaemia. NSFC 81300401. PI. RMB 230,000. 2014–2016.
Selected Publications
1. Yang H, Zhang H, Luan Y, Liu T, Yang W, Roberts KG, et al. Noncoding genetic variation in GATA3 increases acute lymphoblastic leukemia risk through local and global changes in chromatin conformation. Nat Genet. 2022;54(2):170–179. (IF 41.3)
2. Xu H, Zhang H, Yang W, Yadav R, Morrison AC, Qian M, et al. Inherited coding variants at the CDKN2A locus influence susceptibility to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children. Nat Commun. 2015;6:7553.
3. Zhang H, Liu AP, Devidas M, Lee SH, Cao X, Pei D, et al. Association of GATA3 polymorphisms with minimal residual disease and relapse risk in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2021;113(4):408–417.
4. Zhang H, Wang P, Li Z, He Y, Gan W, Jiang H. Anti-CLL1 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in children with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Clin Cancer Res. 2021;27(13):3549–3555.
5. Zhang H, Bu C, Peng Z, Li G, Zhou Z, Ding W, et al. Characteristics of anti-CLL1 based CAR-T therapy for children with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia: the multi-center efficacy and safety interim analysis. Leukemia. 2022;36(11):2596–2604.
6. Churchman ML, Qian M, Te Kronnie G, Zhang R, Yang W, Zhang H, et al. Germline genetic IKZF1 variation and predisposition to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer Cell. 2018;33(5):937–948.e8.
7. Qian M, Cao X, Devidas M, Yang W, Cheng C, Dai Y, et al. TP53 germline variations influence the predisposition and prognosis of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. J Clin Oncol. 2018;36(6):591–599.
8. Qian M, Zhang H, Kham SK, Liu S, Jiang C, Zhao X, et al. Whole-transcriptome sequencing identifies a distinct subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia with predominant genomic abnormalities of EP300 and CREBBP. Genome Res. 2017;27(2):185–195.
9. Zhang H, Mi JQ, Fang H, Wang Z, Wang C, Wu L, et al. Preferential eradication of acute myelogenous leukemia stem cells by fenretinide. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013;110(14):5606–5611.
10. Li C, Liang W, He Y, Zhao X, Qian J, Li Z, et al. Inherited GATA3 variant associated with positive minimal residual disease in childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia via asparaginase resistance. Clin Transl Med. 2021;11(8):e507.
11. Tang Z, Pei K, Xu H, Zheng Y, Zhuang S, Weng K, He Y, Wu J, Zhang H. Allelic expression imbalance of CDKN2A variants in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cell Oncol (Dordr). 2025;48(3):835–839.
12. Li B, Brady SW, Ma X, Shen S, Zhang Y, Li Y, et al. Therapy-induced mutations drive the genomic landscape of relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood. 2020;135(1):41–55.
13. Shen S, Chen X, Cai J, Yu J, Gao J, Hu S, et al. Effect of dasatinib vs imatinib in the treatment of pediatric Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Oncol. 2020;6(3):358–366.
14. Yang W, Cai J, Shen S, Gao J, Yu J, Hu S, et al. Pulse therapy with vincristine and dexamethasone for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (CCCG-ALL-2015): an open-label, multicentre, randomised, phase 3, non-inferiority trial. Lancet Oncol. 2021;22(9):1322–1332.
15. Zhang Y, Gao Y, Zhang H, Zhang J, He F, Hnizda A, et al. PDGFRB mutation and tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance in Ph-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood. 2018;131(20):2256–2261.