He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, Illinois, then joined the faculty of the Mount Sinai Medical School in 1997.

Among his major contributions to science are the Zhou Lab's discovery of the bromodomain as the acetyl-lysine binding domain ('chromatin reader') in gene transcription (Nature 1999)[7] and the first demonstrations of druggability and therapeutic potential of bromodomain proteins in gene transcription to treat a wide array of human diseases, including cancer and inflammation.

2008)[13] and long non-coding RNA in the epigenetic control of gene transcription in human stem cell maintenance and differentiation (Mol.

[14] Zhou's work in rational design of chemical probes for mechanism-driven research led to the discovery of the HIV Tat/human co-activator PCAF interaction as a potential novel anti-HIV therapy target.

[15] His group has developed chemical probes that modulate the transcriptional activity of human tumor suppressor p53 under stress conditions.