Raymond W. Zhou

Biography

Raymond W. Zhou, Ph.D., is Assistant Project Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Demetriou at the University of California, Irvine, and Co-founder and President of GlyTR Therapeutics, Inc. His research focuses on developing cancer immunotherapies that target abnormal glycans on cancer cells and understanding the role of N-glycosylation in regulating T cell development and immune function.

Zhou is a Multiple Principal Investigator on three NIH/NCI STTR grants totaling funding from 2021 through the present, focused on developing glycan-targeted cancer immunotherapies and enhancing their therapeutic efficacy. His work has resulted in multiple patent applications as co-inventor, including the original patent for glycan-dependent immunotherapeutic molecules in 2015 and three additional patent applications filed in 2022. He received an NIH-funded TL1 Training Fellowship through UC Irvine ICTS from 2017 to 2020.

Zhou's doctoral research was the first to elucidate the essential role of N-glycosylation in T cell development in the thymus, providing new understanding of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. He received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, where his thesis examined the regulation of T cell development by N-glycosylation under the advisement of Michael Demetriou, M.D., Ph.D.

Education

• Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 2014
• B.S. in Microbiology, University of California, Davis, 2008

Distinctions

• Poster prize of UCI Symposium: Moving Molecules from the Academic Lab to the Clinic, 2017
• First place poster presentation, 9th UCI Immunology Fair, 2011
• UC Davis, Outstanding academic achievement in the presentation of scholarly research at the 19th Undergraduate Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities Conference, 2008