About the Lab
Lipid bilayer forms a water-impermeable barrier that defines the boundary of a cell and of specialized compartments within a cell. Membrane proteins are embedded in lipid bilayers and serve a wide range of essential cellular functions, such as mediating signal transduction across the membrane and facilitating uptake of nutrients and excretion of wastes.
Dr. Zhou’s lab focuses on two families of proteins, membrane transport proteins that facilitate transmembrane flux of ions and small molecules, and membrane-embedded enzymes that are involved in synthesis and modification of lipids and fatty acids. Dr. Zhou’s lab applies structural, functional and computational methods to understand basic chemical and physical principles in membrane proteins: How substrates are recognized; what structural changes are required for substrate binding and translocation; and how substrates are translocated across the membrane or converted to a product.
Since many of the membrane proteins are also validated drug targets, the lab is also involved in identifying inhibitors for these proteins.
Credit
The phosphotransferase system is required for sugar uptake in bacteria and Enzyme IIC (EIIC) is the protein that transports sugar across the cell membrane. By solving structures of an EIIC in two conformations and by integrating single-molecule fluorescence and molecular dynamics simulations, we revealed the mechanism of sugar transport across the cell membrane.
TrkH is an ion channel in bacteria and it is required for bacteria growth. By solving structures of TrkH in open and closed conformations and by recording its single channel activities, we showed how the channel can be opened by ATP and closed ADP.
Mammalian membrane-bound SCD is a validated drug target for treating obesity, diabetes and cancer. We solved its crystal structure and discovered a novel diiron center at its active site. Current effort focuses on understanding its mechanism of catalysis and its inhibition by small molecules.
