Dr. Zhao received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2010, subsequently served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine while simultaneously serving as a Clinical Chemistry Fellow and later as Chief Clinical Chemistry Fellow at that institution. Dr. Zhao was certified as a Diplomat of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry in 2012. Dr. Zhao was appointed as Staff Scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2012 to 2017. While there, she served as a Clinical Chemist for the Clinical Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine and is Associate Director of the Training Program in Clinical Chemistry at the NIH. She is now at WCM serving as Associate Director of Central Laboratory.

Dr. Zhao has established herself as a leading clinical chemist with considerable expertise in clinical assay development and bringing research based assays to the clinical laboratory. Indeed, her success in this area has prompted her to focus on the translation of new biomarkers and new technologies into the clinical laboratory for the benefit of patient care.