Team

James D. Brooks, MD is a urologist whose clinical practice focuses primarily on the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. He is the Keith and Jan Hurlbut Professor, Vice-Chair and Chief of Urologic Oncology in the Department of Urology. Much of his work has focused on prostate and kidney cancer, and his laboratory has recently expanded research into benign urological conditions including benign prostatic hyperplasia, renal obstruction, and urinary infections. He is Director for the U54 funded Stanford O’Brien Urology Research Center focused on research into benign urologic conditions. He has participated in several cancer research consortia including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) where he was Associate Chair of the Prostate Cancer Working Group, and the Molecular and Cellular Characterization Center Consortium for which he served as Co-Chair. 

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Hongjuan Zhao has been working in the oncology field for 22 years. She obtained my Ph.D. at Washington University and her postdoctoral training at Stanford. As a postdoctoral fellow, Hongjuan worked on identification of molecular subtypes and prognostic signatures of cancers using genomic approaches. For the past 15 years, she has developed patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) using procession-cut tissue slices. The established PDXs of prostate cancer and kidney cancer faithfully recapitulate tumor pathology, gene expression, genetic mutation, and drug response. Using these models, we have successfully identified serum tumor biomarkers and evaluated novel therapeutics in prostate cancer and kidney cancer. Currently, she devotes her time to grant writing, manuscript preparation, and research personnel supervision.

Chun-Lung (Jason) Chiu is a Postdoctoral Scholar of Urology at Stanford University. He obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and Master of Science (MS) at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. He was then awarded a competitive scholarship for Ph.D. study and received Ph.D. in Integrative Pathobiology at the University of California Davis, and later trained as a Postdoctoral Scholar. His research interests involve the development of a comprehensive understanding of key molecular pathways and molecular mechanisms of cancer and benign urological disease. His research currently focuses on molecular mechanisms of cancer development and develops novel therapies to prevent cancer progression and recurrence. He authored and co-authored numerous academic publications and received multiple fellowships and awards, including the U.S. Department of Defense Postdoctoral and Clinical Fellowship Award.

Originally from Hunan, China Ru earned her master degree in 2012 in UNSW (Australia) and attended UGA for her PhD study. She joined Dr. Brooks' lab at the end of 2019. Ru's research interest lies in investigating the role of Siglecs for cancer therapy, mainly focus on the Siglec-7/9-sialic acid interactions as immune checkpoints for prostate cancer.

Dalin Zhang attended the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences for his PhD. Afterward, he joined the University of California Davis as a postdoc where he developed several cancer therapy drugs/materials. His interests lie in the discovery of cancer/benign disease biomarkers, mechanisms of cancer/benign disease progression, novel cancer/benign disease therapeutics to help patients fight disease progress and could be translated into clinical practice to guide the therapeutic decisions of precision medicine, as well as novel effective/intelligent targeted compounds discovery for cancer treatment. Currently, Dalin's focus is on kidney cancer/prostate cancer and kidney fibrosis using the clinically relevant PDX models and other most state-of-the-art methods in the lab.

Alexandra Polasko's background is in molecular biology, applied microbiology, and engineering. Prior to joining the Brooks lab, she was a postdoctoral fellow in Oral Biology at UCLA. She received her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UCLA and B.S. from UC Berkeley. One of Alexandra's proudest accomplishments was being the recipient of UCLA’s 2021 Distinguished Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants. Her current research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms that drive benign prostate hyperplasia using patient-derived xenograft models as well as investigating factors that drive catheter blockages and infections in patients.  When Alexandra is not in the lab you can find her cycling up the Bay Area hills. 

Peter Qiu has been a Life Science Research Professional in Brooks’ Lab since Oct, 2022. He received his BS in Biology Science from Tianjin University and his Mph in Biostatistics from Tufts University. He is currently focusing on AZGP1+Myc related prostate cancer research.

Eric Peterson received his BS in biochemistry from UC Davis and a master's in biotechnology from San Jose State. He has worked in clinical laboratories for about 9 years, and in research labs for over 15. Those years were spent developing pharmaceuticals to treat coronary thrombosis, breast cancer, pain, and autoimmune disorders. Eric joined the School of Medicine in 2017 and moved to the Department of Urology in 2023. At SJSU, he teaches Biology 233T - Immunological Techniques in the Laboratory to the next generation of biotechnology grad students. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and reading about history.

"One afternoon--years ago in Amsterdam--Margaret Thatcher almost ran me over."

Major: Human Biology

Graduation year: 2026

Major: Biology

Graduation year: 2026