The Pharmacogenomics Group (ZJUPGX), led by Dr. Zhan Zhou, Associate Professor at the School of Pharmacy, Zhejiang University, is dedicated to advancing pharmacogenomics and precision medicine through the integration of multi-omics data, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. Our research follows a translational framework spanning mutation discovery, immune recognition, and therapeutic development. First, we develop computational approaches to identify cancer-driving genes, mutations, and molecular modules from large-scale genomic and multi-omics data, thereby uncovering the critical alterations underlying tumor initiation and progression. Second, we investigate which tumor-specific mutations can be presented by human leukocyte antigens and recognized by T cells, with a particular focus on neoantigen prediction and TCR–antigen recognition. Third, we translate these computationally identified targets into innovative biologics and immunotherapies, including personalized cancer vaccines, T-cell engagers, and TCR-based therapeutics. Together, these efforts establish an integrated pipeline from identifying biologically important mutations to determining their immunological visibility and ultimately converting them into actionable therapeutic strategies.
To date, the group has published more than 100 papers in leading journals, including Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research, Advanced Science, Molecular Therapy, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Protein & Cell, and Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics. We have also developed more than 30 bioinformatics tools, databases, and web-based resources, including DeepHLApan, TSNAD, CanDriS, MODIG, MATTE, Spanve, TSNAdb, TRAIT, ImmuCEdb, CovEpiAb, and scMOVIR. Notably, personalized cancer vaccines designed using our computational algorithms have progressed into clinical trials, marking an important step in translating AI-driven neoantigen discovery into individualized cancer immunotherapy.