Haying Zhao graduated from Peking University, department of Biochemistry. As an assistant research fellow in National Center for Gene Research, Chinese Academic of China, she collaborated to construct the first full bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of Oryza sativa genome in the world, which was supported by a grant from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program). As an associate research fellow in Shanghai Jiaotong University, her research focused on these fields:

(1) detection of DNA and gene diagnosis;

(2) trace analyses of basic biomolecules

(3) enzyme immunoassay employing SERS. Some work has been awarded the 1st and the 2nd Scientific Technology Progress Prize of Shanghai municipal government.