Zuyao was born on March 8th, 1963, in Wen'an, a small town in Guizhou, a mountaineer province in Southern China, being the elder child in the family with 4 sisters.

Zuyao began his learning at Wen'an High School, then studied medicine at the West China University of Medical Sciences, the spicy Sichuan Province, and harvested his MD. and M.Sc in 1984, and in 1987, respectively. His initial Ph.D. study started in 1996 at the same university, but was interrupted by the immigration wave to North American in 1998. Due to the passion to complete the Marathon run, Zuyao resumed his Ph.D. track in 2002 at the University of Toronto in Dr. R. Bremner's Lab here.

In addition to his deadly interesting in watching football, Zuyao's initial interesting in research came in 1980's while studying on structure and mutagenesis relation of pesticides. Later on, he acquired some molecular knowledge in the National University of Singapore in 1995. More molecular background was collected in the University of Pittsburgh in 1998 in his studies on STAT signaling in prostate cancer. In the year 2000, University of Toronto became his new home of research. It seems he will continue to live in the home in the near future.