The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Neurosurgery is pleased to announce that Zhihong Yu will join the department in October 2025 as a lab manager in the research lab of Associate Professor of Neurosurgery Jianmei Leavenworth, M.D., Ph.D.

Yu brings more than two decades of research experience to the department. She earned a master’s degree in biophysics from Beijing Medical University in 1998 before beginning her career as a research assistant at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

In 2001, she came to UAB and joined the Department of Medicine Division of Immunology and Rheumatology as a research associate until 2008. During this time, her work centered on B-cell development.

In 2009, Yu transferred to the Department of Anesthesiology where she worked as a scientist I for more than 15 years, studying lung injury caused by halogen inhalation.

In her new role, Yu will collaborate closely with Leavenworth and the members of her lab.