About Me

I received Ph.D. in Structural Biology from University of Science and Technology of China in 2011, where I was awarded the Presidential Award of CAS. Afterwards, I went to Stanford University School of Medicine to pursue postdoctoral training in Dr. Brian Kobilka’s lab, funded by American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship. I am currently staff-level research scientist at Stanford Medical Center. In the past five years, I have been focused on studying structure and function of the β2-adrenergic receptor and its downstream signaling complexes. I have co-authored 24 papers in Cell, Nature, JACS, PNAS, Chemical Science and other reputed journals with 9 first-author publications, in the areas of GPCRs, signal transduction, structural pharmacology etc.

Appointment: Stanford Research Scientist

Advisor: Dr. Brian Kobilka

Research interest: Structural and functional studies on β2-adernergic receptor and downstream signaling complexes

Research area: Structural Pharmacology, Receptor Biology, Signal Transduction

ABOUT MY RESEARCH

Summary

My current research is focused on the structure and function of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest family of cell surface membrane proteins that represent ~40% of current drug targets. GPCRs relay diverse extracellular signals inside cells, and are involved in almost every aspect of human physiology. beta-2 adrenergic receptor (β2AR) is an important drug target for the treatment of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. I am using β2AR as model receptor to explore the molecular mechanisms and binding properties of GPCRs with downstream signaling protein complexes. Crystallographic, biochemical, biophysical and pharmacological tools are used to address the specific phosphorylation and regulatory mechanism of β2AR by a GPCR kinase; and the kinetic interaction and coupling specificity of β2AR-G protein complex. My study provides important structural insights into how these GPCR complexes function to better understand the intricate signaling network of GPCRs. This will contribute to answer some fundamental questions in GPCR field and guide drug discovery with better efficacy and specificity.

Leading projects

-Structural and functional studies of β2 adrenergic receptor-GPCR kinase complex

-Structural and functional studies of β2 adrenergic receptor-inhibitory G protein complex

-Kinetic studies of β2 adrenergic receptor complexes with synchrotron X-ray foot-printing

-Structural and functional studies of PQ-loop receptors in intracellular trafficking

Contributing projects

-with Prof. Pil Seok Chae on designing novel detergents for membrane protein studies

-with Prof. Ka Young Chung on HDX-MS studies of GPCR-G protein complexes

-with Prof. Jeffrey Benovic on pepducins regulating GPCR biased signaling

-with Prof. Georgios Skiniotis and Prof. David Baker on CryoEM studies of GPCRs

OTHERS

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

03/2006-10/2011 Ph.D. in Laboratory of Structural Biochemistry (advisors: Prof. Cong-Zhao Zhou and

Prof. Yu-Xing Chen), School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of

China

08/2004-07/2005 B.S. major in Biological Sciences, National Base for Training Talents in Life Sciences

and Biotechnology (advisor: Prof. Jia-Hui Xia), Xiangya School of Medicine, Central

South University

09/2001-07/2004 B.S. minor in Chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry, Central South University

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01/2017-present Research Scientist, in Dr. Brian Kobilka’s lab, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular

Physiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University

01/2012-12/2016 Postdoctoral Scholar, in Dr. Brian Kobilka’s lab, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular

Physiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University

08/2004-08/2005 Training in medical genetics, State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics

07/2003-08/2003 Training in chemical engineering and process, Nanjing Chemical Industrial, Sinopec

Group

HONORS AND AWARDS

01/2014-12/2015 Postdoctoral Fellowship, funded by American Heart Association

2015 CVI Postdoc Travel Award, funded by Stanford Cardiovascular Institute

2016 Outstanding Service Award, Chinese-American BioPharmaceutical Society (CABS)

2011 The Presidential Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences

2010 Graduate “Dong-Gang” Scholarship

2008 The First Prize of Oral Presentation, Annual Conference of the Society of Biochemistry and

Molecular Biology of East China

2001-2005 Outstanding Student Award of Central South University

MEMBERSHIP AND ACTIVITIES

Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Member of American Heart Association (AHA)

Member of American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET)

Member of Chinese Crystallographic Society (CCrS)

Scientific Consultant: ImmunOn Therapeutics, Ltd. (http://www.immuon.com/en/)

Executive Council Member, Office of Operations, Chinese-American Bio/Pharmaceutical Society (CABS)

Vice President for Academic Advising of Chinese Life-science Postdocs and Students at Stanford (CLIPSS)

Academic Reviewer

Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, European Journal of BioMedical Research, International Journal of Nanomedicine, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Medicine, Peer J

CONFERENCES AND TALKS

08/2017 Seminar at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor titled with ‘Structural and functional studies of

GPCR signaling complexes’

05/2017 Seminar at Fudan University titled with ‘Structural insights into the β2 adrenergic receptor

phosphorylation by GRK5’

04/2017 Seminar at Tsinghua University titled with ‘Structural and functional studies of GPCR signaling

complexes’

04/2017 Seminar at Shandong University titled with ‘Structural insights into the β2 adrenergic receptor

phosphorylation by GRK5’

04/2017 Seminar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong titled with ‘How does a GPCR kinase

phosphorylate a GPCR’

04/2017 Seminar at University of Science and Technology of China titled with ‘Kinetic studies of GPCR-G

protein assembly’

07/2016 Novartis Drug Discovery and Development Project Simulation Program (with the role of ‘Full

Development Clinician’)

05/2016 2016 BioPacific Conference, San Mateo

12/2015 4th GPCR workshop, Hawaii (poster presentation: Structural and functional studies on β2AR

phosphorylation by GPCR kinase)

11/2015 Genentech Research Open House, South San Francisco

10/2015 UCSF-Amgen Symposium, San Francisco

10/2015 30th William S. Johnson Symposium, Stanford

10/2015 LakePharma Protein Engineering Symposium, South San Francisco

05/2015 Oral Presentation in National Center for Drug Discovery of China titled with ‘Molecular

mechanism of specific phosphorylation of β2AR by GRK5’

05/2015 Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conferences - Membrane Proteins: Structure & Function, Suzhou

(poster presentation: biochemical and biophysical characterizations of β2AR-GRK5 interface)

12/2013 3rd GPCR workshop, Hawaii

09/2011 Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conferences - Protein Structure Based Drug Design, Suzhou

07/2011 Annual Conference of the Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of East China,

Zhoushan

05/2011 Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conferences - Membrane Proteins: Structure & Function, Suzhou

03/2010 The 3rd Symposium on Structural Biology of China, Sanya

07/2009 The 11th China Biophysics Conference, Guilin

11/2008 Annual Conference of the Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of East China, Nantong