Weiruo Zhang
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Dr. Weiruo Zhang earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Her research focuses on Biomedical AI, developing machine learning methods that integrate spatial multi-omics, medical imaging and clinical data to study tumor progression and improve cancer treatment. She created CELESTA, a widely adopted tool to identify cell types in tissue samples, and MONTAGE, a computational framework for integrating multi-modal data to analyze cancer… ↓More
Joined department: Fall 2025
Research Areas
Education
PhD, Stanford University, Electrical Engineering
MS, Stanford University, Electrical Engineering
BS, National University of Singapore, Electrical Engineering (honorary)
Dr. Weiruo Zhang earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Her research focuses on Biomedical AI, developing machine learning methods that integrate spatial multi-omics, medical imaging and clinical data to study tumor progression and improve cancer treatment. She created CELESTA, a widely adopted tool to identify cell types in tissue samples, and MONTAGE, a computational framework for integrating multi-modal data to analyze cancer tissue. Her work has been published in leading journals including Nature Methods, Science Immunology and Cell.
Selected Publications
W. Zhang, I. Li, N. Reticker-Flynn, Z. Good, S. Chang, N. Samusik, S. Saumyaa, X. Zhou, Y. Li, R. Liang, C. Kong, Q.T. Le, J. Sunwoo, A. Gentles, G. Nolan, E. Engleman, S. Plevritis, “Identification of cell types in multiplexed in situ images by combining protein expression and spatial information using CELESTA”, Nature Methods, 19(6):759-769, (2022)
N. Reticker-Flynn, W. Zhang, J. Belk, P. Basto, N. Escalante, G. Pilarowski, A. Bejnood, M. Martins, J. Kenkel, I. Linde, S. Bagchi, R. Yuan, S. Chang, M. Spitzer, Y. Carmi, J. Cheng, L. Tolentino, O. Choi, N. Wu, C. Kong, A. Gentles, J. Sunwoo, A. Satpathy, S. Plevritis, E. Engleman, “Lymph node colonization alters the systemic immune response to enable metastasis to distant tissues”, Cell, 185(11):1924-1942, (2022)
N. Li, W. Zhang, D. Haensel, A. Jussila, C. Pan, S. Gaddam, S. Plevritis, A. Oro, “Basal-to-inflammatory transition and tumor resistance via crosstalk with a pro-inflammatory stromal niche”, Nature Communications, 15:8134, (2024)
G. Bouchard, W. Zhang, I. Li, I. Ilerten, A. Bhattacharya, Y. Li, W. Trope, J. Shrager, C. Kuo, L. Tian, A. Giaccia, S. Plevritis, “A quantitative spatial cell-cell colocalizations framework enabling comparisons between in vitro assembloids and pathological specimens”, Nature Communications, 16:1392, (2025)
W. Zhang, G. Bouchard, A. Yu, M. Shafiq, M. Jamali, J. Shrager, K. Ayers, S. Bakr, A. Gentles, M. Diehn, A. Quon, R. West, V.S. Nair, M.V.D. Rijn, S. Napel, S. Plevritis, “GFPT2-expressing cancer-associated fibroblasts mediate metabolic reprogramming in human lung adenocarcinoma”, Cancer Research, 78(13):3445-3457, (2018)