Yanding Zhao

Genome instability is a hallmark of cancer, spanning point mutations, structural variants, and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) that reconfigure the 3D genome. These alterations not only drive tumor growth but also reshape the immune and stromal microenvironment. In this talk, I will present integrative computational frameworks that connect genome alterations to regulatory and phenotypic consequences. Applying this approach to osteosarcoma, a pediatric cancer strongly driven by instability, we uncovered mechanisms of chemoresistance, mapped evolutionary trajectories of genome alteration, and linked them to distinct microenvironmental states. I will also highlight how this framework extends to other cancer types, leveraging large-scale genomic resources to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities.

Yanding Zhao received his PhD in Genetics from Dartmouth College and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in the laboratories of Howard Y. Chang and Christina Curtis. His work develops computational approaches to uncover how genome instability and 3D chromatin architecture shape cancer evolution, with a recent focus on ecDNA as a driver of oncogene amplification. His long-term goal is to translate these insights into predictive models and targeted therapeutic strategies.