Exclusive Interview with Dr. Ying Zhu- Insights into Extracellular Vesicles in Pancreatic Cancer

On 14th December 2022, the Editorial Office of Extracellular Vesicles and Circulating Nucleic Acids (EVCNA) had an exclusive interview with Dr. Ying Zhu to talk about her current research projects on early detection of pancreatic cancer and her expectation in this field.

Dr. Zhu is a lecturer from the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her current research focuses on developing new nanomaterials and nanoscale devices for the capture and analysis of biomarkers for cancer diagnostics. As the principal investigator, Dr. Zhu was awarded the 2022 PanKind Early Detection Innovation Grant for the project "A blood test for early detection of pancreatic cancer by single extracellular vesicle analysis".

During the interview, Dr. Zhu shared her research journey, ongoing projects, and progress, and elaborated on her recently funded project on the early detection of pancreatic cancer. In addition, Dr. Zhu also talked about her future research plans and goals and gave helpful suggestions for researchers to begin their journey in this field. Here's what went down:

Q1: Could you please talk about your career journey and how your research interests have been focused on cancer diagnosis?

Q2: What are your current projects mainly focused on?

Q3: What are the general challenges in the early detection of pancreatic cancer?

Q4: Could you please tell us more about this innovative project that received the 2022 PanKind Early Detection Innovation Grant?

Q5: What research goals do you want to achieve in the next five years?

Q6: What pieces of advice will you give to early career researchers to start their journey in academia?