MD/PhD candidate studying the diversity of blood cancer cells to find a personalized recipe for treating leukemia

Andy Zeng was always fascinated by cancer research, right back to the early days of his undergraduate studies in biology and biochemistry.

But his interest took a personal turn after he flew from Toronto to Beijing to say goodbye to his grandmother, who died of colon cancer a few years ago.

“That was when it changed from becoming an academic exercise into something that was much more personal and human for me,” Zeng recalls.

Now earning his MD/PhD from the University of Toronto, Zeng is researching the types of cells that are present in blood cancers and how they respond to different cancer drugs.

“Ultimately, the goal is to personalize patient treatment for leukemia,” he says.