Dr. Lee Zou received his Ph.D. training at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and his postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. He is currently Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Associate Scientific Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and the James and Patricia Poitras Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Zou’s research has focused on understanding how genomic stability is maintained in human cells and how genomic instability arises in cancers. In particular, his lab has extensively studied the mechanisms by which DNA damage is sensed and signaled in human cells. Work by Dr. Zou and colleagues has elucidated how the ATR checkpoint pathway is activated by DNA damage and DNA replication stress, establishing the framework of the current models of DNA damage signaling. In addition, studies from the Zou lab has shed new light on the causes of genomic instability in cancer cells and the resulting vulnerabilities, providing new opportunities for targeted cancer therapy.