People
Dr Zhanhan Tu
Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Ophthalmology
School/Department: Psychology and Vision Sciences, School of
Email: zhanhan.tu@le.ac.uk
Research
Retinoblastoma in children using Hand-held OCT.
Malaria retinopathy in Malawian children with cerebral malaria.
Medical imaging AI.
Retinal and optic nerve development in normal children.
Visual abnormalities in infantile nystagmus.
Retina changes in craniofacial anomalies.
Earlier research (2007-2012): HBV X proteins, amblyopia treatment, pirenzepine effects on FDM.
Selected Funding (as PI/Co-PI/Named Candidate):
Advancing Early Diagnosis of Retinoblastoma (PI, £302,659, Medical Research Foundation 2025)
Standardised care for paediatric eye diseases (Co-PI, £638,327, Ulverscroft Foundation 2024)
Predicting Outcomes in Cerebral Malaria by OCT (Co-PI, £1,367,505, Wellcome Trust 2021)
OCT in children (Named candidate, £351,633 & £247,312, Ulverscroft Foundation)
Multiple MRC IAA and University of Leicester grants (£2,500 – £40,563)
Publications
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Shenoy R, et al. Clinician-Led Code-Free Deep Learning for Detecting Papilledema... TVST 2026.
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Hunt C, et al. Genome-Wide Insights Into Genes Shaping Human Foveal Development... IOVS 2025.
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Sekhri R, et al. Identifying biomarkers for papilledema and pseudopapilledema. Sci Rep 2025.
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Liu JH, et al. Retrospective long-term surgical results... for pediatric optic disc pit maculopathy. Transl Pediatr 2025.
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Tao C, et al. Innovative rapid pathological assessment for hepatocellular carcinoma. Updates Surg 2025.
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Shenoy R, et al. Foveal Hypoplasia Grading with OCT... Diagnostics 2025.
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Li Z, et al. Essential role of Dhx16... in hematopoietic stem cells. Leukemia 2024 (Corresponding Author).
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Noah A, et al. Retinal imaging with hand-held OCT in older people... PLOS ONE 2024.
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Tu Z, et al. ERG Responses in Albinism, Idiopathic Infantile Nystagmus, and Controls. IOVS 2024 (Corresponding Author).
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Tu Z, et al. Cerebral malaria: insight from OCT. Scientific Reports 2021 (first paper on OCT in cerebral malaria).
Supervision
Master's Supervisor
UG Project students
Teaching
- Deputy Academic Director, MSc Oncology/Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology, Joint Education Institute
- Deputy Academic Director, BSc Clinical Medicine/Clinical Sciences, Joint Education Institute
- Programme Director (UK), BSc Clinical Sciences
- Academic Development Lead: LCPR-Leading Leicester-Chongqing Programme Refinement (curriculum matching, teaching/assessment methods design, English support, personal tutor & feedback systems).
- Head of Year 3/D BSc Clinical Sciences.
- Project Director for BS3084 BSc Clinical Sciences.
- Module Lead of Medical Cell Biology and Genetics (MCBG).
- Teaching of teachers: curriculum design, lectures, tutorials, mentoring.
- Session design for BS3033 Physiology, Pharmacology and Behaviour (Block 3: Vision).
- Practical teaching for BS2015 Physiology of Excitable Cells: Vision and Sensory Integration.
Activities
Recent Activities
Trustee of the charity See A Brighter Africa (SABA) (since 04/2019)
Reviewer for IOVS, BMJ, BJO, Scientific Reports
Joint Operations Committee member and Joint Research Committee member
International collaborative projects leading partnerships in UK, Malawi, USA, China
Designer/supervisor of BS3084 and BS1081 (clinical audit, bioinformatics, systematic reviews, wet-lab studies, etc.)
Hosted Nature Medicine Roundtable meeting with Chief Editor Dr João Monteiro (2025)
Nature Master Class training (2025)
Awards
Selected Awards
2022: Travel grant, ARVO
2019: First Prize poster competition (Early Career Researcher Symposium); ECR funding
2018: Best Talk prize (44th EPOS conference); Travel grant (Wellcome Trust ASM)
2017: University of Leicester Development Research Partnership Fund
2015: Travel grant, ISCEV
Conferences
Selected presentations:
2026: Hot topic in ARVO Denver
2025: Rapid Fire (EPOS, Leiden); Keynote (Forum on Medical Education); ARVO Salt Lake City
2024: Invited speaker – 1st Asia-Pacific Pediatric Retina Association, 10th Beijing Tongren, RCOphth Congress, ARVO (also moderator)
2023: ARVO – Hand-held OCT in Retinoblastoma
2022: Chairing & Symposium (ECEM); ARVO, EUNOS, BIPOSA presentations
2020-2025: Invited speaker – Beijing Tongren Paediatric Retinal Diseases Symposium
2019: ARVO Vancouver – Longitudinal Changes of Malarial Retinopathy
2018: 44th EPOS – OCT in Cerebral Malaria (Free paper, won Best Talk)
Qualifications
Associate Fellow (AFHEA)
PhD
Master of Medicine (Cancer)
Bachelor of Medicine (MBChB)