Faculty

Zhi Huang, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Department: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Graduate Group Affiliations

Genomics and Computational Biology

Contact information

3700 Hamilton Walk Room D204
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Office: 3133679531

Email:
zhi.huang@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Education:
BS (Automation)
Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2015.
MS (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Purdue University, Indianapolis, 2016.
PhD (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Purdue University, West Lafayette, 2021.

Links
Lab website

Permanent link

> Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details

Description of Research Expertise

Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Computer Vision
Large Language Model
Image Analysis
Digital Pathology
Computational Medicine

Selected Publications

Jonathan Xu, Michelle Jiang, Shunsuke Koga, Nancy Zhang, Zhi Huang: SpatialFinder: a human-in-the-loop vision-language framework for prioritizing high-value regions in spatial transcriptomics. Frontiers in Bioinformatics. Kevin Eliceiri (eds.). 6, April 2026.

Yinuo Xu, Zhi Huang: AI offers way to image and assess clinical cell samples. Nature February 2026.

Jialu Yao, Songhao Li, Peixian Liang, Xiaowei Xu, David Elder, Zhi Huang: Melan-Dx: a knowledge-enhanced vision-language framework improves differential diagnosis of melanocytic neoplasm pathology. npj Digital Medicine January 2026.

Zhi Huang, Tiancheng Bao, Jialu Yao: Chapter 14. Large Language Models utilized by digital pathology workflows: Impact on Pathology Practice. Advances in Digital Pathology and Artificial Intelligence in Pathology for Clinical Workflow. Zaibo Li and Anil V. Parwani (eds.). ELSEVIER, 2026.

Yan Cui, Jacob S Leiby, Wenhui Lei, Dokyoon Kim, Yanxiang Deng, Aaron T Mayer, Zhenqin Wu, Alexandro E Trevino, Zhi Huang: Linking spatial biology and clinical histology via Haiku. Under review, Nature Communications 2026.

Zhi Huang, Peixian Liang: Chapter 9. Pixels to Patterns. Precision Pathology – From Pixels to Predictions 2026.

Peixian Liang, Songhao Li, Shunsuke Koga, Yutong Li, Zahra Alipour, Yucheng Tang, Daguang Xu, Zhi Huang: VISTA-PATH: An interactive foundation model for pathology image segmentation and quantitative analysis in computational pathology. Under revision, Nature Medicine 2026.

Sheng Wang, Ruiming Wu, Charles Herndon, Yihang Liu, Shunsuke Koga, Jeanne Shen, Zhi Huang: Pathology-CoT: Learning visual chain-of-thought agent from expert whole slide image diagnosis behavior. Accepted, Nature Biomedical Engineering 2026.

Jacob S Leiby, Jialu Yao, Pan Lu, George Hu, Anna Davidian, Shunsuke Koga, Olivia Leung, Pravin Patel, Isabella Tondi Resta, Rebecca Rojansky, Derek Sung, Eric Yang, Paul J Zhang, Emma Lundberg, Dokyoon Kim, Serena Yeung-Levy, James Zou, Thomas Montine, Jeffrey Nirschl, Zhi Huang: iSight: Towards expert-AI co-assessment for improved immunohistochemistry staining interpretation. Under revision, Nature Biomedical Engineering 2026.

Songhao Li, Jonathan Xu, Tiancheng Bao, Yuxuan Liu, Yuchen Liu, Yihang Liu, Lilin Wang, Wenhui Lei, Sheng Wang, Yinuo Xu, Yan Cui, Jialu Yao, Shunsuke Koga, Zhi Huang: A co-evolving agentic ai system for medical image analysis. Under revision, Nature 2026.