Zhanzhi (Mike) Hu

Zhanzhi Hu (aka, Mike) is a parent of two children with a rare disorder. He is an ardent advocate for newborn screening and works tirelessly to bridge the gap between advanced technologies and the critical need of expansion of the newborn screening public health program. Hu is the cofounder and president of Project GUARDIAN, a nonprofit organization with the mission of advancing genomics-based newborn screening. Additionally, he is an adjunct associate research scientist at Columbia University, where he conducts newborn screening related research projects. Previously, Hu was the associate director of product development at Veracyte and led the development team to successfully launch four diagnostic products during his tenure. Before joining Veracyte, Hu co-founded a precision medicine startup to pioneer advanced reproductive healthcare by genome scale carrier screening. Prior to that, Hu led development teams at Complete Genomics and Affymetrix to develop next-generation sequencing technologies and products. Hu received his Ph.D. degree in molecular genetics and microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin, and his B.S. degree in cell biology and genetics from Peking University.