Zhou previously had been an Assistant Professor of Oral Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry, and also was a member of UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the university’s Dental Research Institute.He holds a BS in biochemistry and microbiology from Hangzhou University in China; a PhD in biochemistry and a postdoctorate training in human genetics from Boston University; and an MS in software engineering from Brandeis University.