Sirui Zhou

Sirui Zhou joined the Department of Human Genetics and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Genomic Medicine as an assistant professor in January 2022. She obtained her PhD from the Université de Montréal in 2017, under the supervision of Dr. Guy Rouleau at the Neuro. Her PhD trainings were focused on the genetic architecture of Nunavik Inuit and intracranial aneurysms in founder populations of Quebec. Later, she pursued her studies in the lab of Dr. Brent Richards at the LDI, as a CIHR postdoctoral fellow. She leveraged multi-omics data and used genetic epidemiological methods to identify tractable biomarkers for osteoporosis, and during the pandemic, to identify potential drug targets for severe COVID-19.

Blood proteins can reflect the biological processes in tissues and thus are the first indicators of disease. They could be directly targeted for therapeutic intervention if the causal relationship between proteins and diseases are elucidated. Environmental and genetic factors associated with different ancestries may also reflect the change in proteomics and interactions between different omics, which could be leveraged to identify targets for disease. Currently, I am interested in using the proteomic, metabolomic and genomic data from the BQC19 (Banque québécoise de la COVID-19) and other large biobanks to explore potential targets that contribute to the risks to severe SARS-CoV2 infection and other related traits in multiple populations