Director, Advanced Molecular Diagnostics Service
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Dr. Liying Zhang (“Lily”) is a professor and Director of Advanced Molecular Diagnostics Service in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the UCLA Health System. Dr. Zhang also serve as the Director, Cancer Molecular Diagnostics, at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center of UCLA. Dr. Zhang provides senior leadership in clinical operations and strategic planning for all our molecular testing labs including Molecular Pathology/Genetics and Cytogenetics as well as clinical bioinformatics/informatics for both cancer and germline genomic testing. Dr. Zhang leads the expansion of the current clinical cancer genomic offerings to support integrated clinical cancer care for the UCLA Health System, and to identify, support and advance UCLA translational research into clinical use and technology transfer.
Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Zhang served as a faculty member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer (MSKCC) since 2005, rising to Director of Diagnostic Molecular Genetics (DMG) Laboratory in 2009 and full attending/member in 2017. Dr. Zhang led the validation and development of more than 30 molecular diagnostic tests, including the NGS-based germline panel MSK-IMPACT, for cancer predisposition testing, and analysis of microsatellite instability and methylation to guide targeted therapy, immunotherapy and patient selection for clinical trials. Dr. Zhang has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers in journals including NEJM, JAMA, Cancer Discovery, JCO, JCO Precision Oncology and Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.