Source: Interfolio F180


Qinghai Zhang

Associate Professor
Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology


 Email

Research Focus

We are a multidisciplinary group working on chemical and structural biology of membrane proteins. Membrane proteins account for about one third of human genes and comprise more than 50% of human drug targets. Our laboratory develops novel methodologies and chemical tools enabling their structural and functional characterizations. A major interest is to study the interactions between membrane proteins and lipids that govern the protein stability and function. We are also interested in the development and discovery of small molecule therapeutics targeting membrane proteins of great biological and biomedical significance including transporters, GPCRs and channels. Towards this end, we have devoted efforts to solve membrane protein structures for drug binding and mechanistic studies. Developing synthetic methodologies to make biologically relevant molecules is another component of our laboratory.


Education

Ph.D., Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2001
B.S., Fudan University, 1996

Professional Experience

2001-2004 Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology, Scripps Research
2004-2010 Associate Professor, Molecular Biology, Scripps Research
2011-Present Associate Professor, Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research

Selected Publications

Gewering, T.; Waghray, D.; Parey, K.; Jung, H.; Tran, N. N.; Zapata, J.; Zhao, P.; Chen, H.; Januliene, D.; Hummer, G.; Urbatsch, I. L.; Moeller, A.; Zhang, Q. Tracing the substrate translocation mechanism in P-glycoprotein. bioRxiv 2023.

Padayatti, P. S.; Lee, S. C.; Stanfield, R. L.; Wen, P.; Tajkhorshid, E.; Wilson, I. A.; Zhang, Q. Structural Insights into the Lipid A Transport Pathway in MsbA.. Structure (London, England : 1993) 2019, 27, 1114-1123.e3.
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Moeller, A.; Lee, S. C.; Tao, H.; Speir, J. A.; Chang, G. A.; Urbatsch, I. L.; Potter, C. S.; Carragher, B. O.; Zhang, Q. Distinct conformational spectrum of homologous multidrug ABC transporters. Structure 2015, 23, 450-460.
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Szewczyk, P.; Tao, H.; McGrath, A. P.; Villaluz, M.; Rees, S. D.; Lee, S. C.; Doshi, R.; Urbatsch, I. L.; Zhang, Q.; Chang, G. Snapshots of ligand entry, malleable binding and induced helical movement in P-glycoprotein. 2015, 71, 732-41.

Tao, H.; Lee, S. C.; Moeller, A.; Roy, R. S.; Siu, F. Y.; Zimmermann, J.; Stevens, R. C.; Potter, C. S.; Carragher, B. O.; Zhang, Q. Engineered nanostructured ß-sheet peptides protect membrane proteins. Nature Methods 2013, 10, 759-761.
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Lee, S. C.; Bennett, B. C.; Hong, W. X.; Fu, Y.; Baker, K. A.; Marcoux, J.; Robinson, C. V.; Ward, A. B.; Halpert, J. R.; Stevens, R. C.; Stout, C. D.; Yeager, M. J.; Zhang, Q. Steroid-based facial amphiphiles for stabilization and crystallization of membrane proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2013, 110, E1203-11.
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