Dr. Daohong Zhou is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacodynamics at the College of Pharmacy and a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the College of Medicine, University of Florida (UF) at Gainesville.  He serves as the Associate Director for Translation and Drug Development and the Harry E. Innes Endowed Professor of Cancer Research at the UF Health Cancer Center.  His research has led to a better understanding of the role of cellular senescence in ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy induced normal tissue damage (such as bone marrow suppression and pulmonary fibrosis) and the discovery of the first potent and broad-spectrum senolytic agent, ABT263 (a dual Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl inhibitor), that can selectively kill senescent cells to rejuvenate both prematurely senescent tissue stem cells (including hematopoietic stem cells) induced by IR and tissue stem cells in normally aged mice. This discovery may lead to new therapeutics for various age-related diseases and the side effects induced by chemotherapy and IR. More recently, he developed several proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) that can target Bcl-xl and other proteins of interest for degradation via the ubiquitination and proteasome system. He found that Bcl-xl PROTACs can selectively induce Bcl-xl degradation in senescent cells and various cancer cells but not in platelets, suggesting that Bcl-xl PROTACs have the potential to be developed as a better senolytic and anticancer agent than ABT263 by not causing thrombocytopenia. Using the PROTAC drug development platform, he is developing additional specific antitumor and better senolytic agents.