Lu Zhang Ph.D.

Assistant Professor      

Principal Investigator

Institute            

Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies

School of Life Science and Technology

Research Area Structural biology, Glycobiology, drug development based on three-dimensional structure of the drug target   

Contact Info.  zhanglu1@shanghaitech.edu.cn

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Education

2001-2005  Bachelor degree student in Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, China

2005-2008  Master degree student in Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, China

2016-2019  PhD degree student in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology under supervisor of Prof. Zihe Rao, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, China, also a visiting collaborating PhD student at the ShanghaiTech University.

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Working Experience

2008-2016   Working as a professional staff in the College of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Ministry of Science and Technology, China (2011-2013)

2020-now   Assistant professor in School of Life Science and Technology, PI in Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies (SIAIS)

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Research Interests

(i) Structural study of drug target proteins involved in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis cell wall synthesis and structure based new anti-Tuberculosis drug development;

(ii) Structural and functional studies of disease-related membrane-bound glycosyltransferases (GTs).

Dr. Lu Zhang has contributed to determining the three dimensional structures of multi-pass transmembrane proteins and protein complexes related to drug targets of infectious diseases (i.e. Mycobacterium Tuberculosis) by comprehensively using cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography; concentrated on the glycobiological and biochemical strategy of understanding the functions of membrane-bound glycosyltransferases (GTs). She has now opted for developing new anti-tuberculosis drugs based on 3D structures of the drug targets.

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Selected Publications

  1. Zhang, Lu*; Zhao, Yao*; Gao, Yan; Wu, Lijie; Gao, Ruogu; Zhang, Qi; Wang, Yinan; Wu, Chengyao; Wu, Fangyu; Gurcha, Sudagar S.; Veerapen, Natacha; Batt, Sarah M.; Zhao, Wei; Qin, Ling; Yang, Xiuna; Wang, Manfu; Zhu, Yan; Zhang, Bing; Bi, Lijun; Zhang, Xian'en; Yang, Haitao; Guddat, Luke W.; Xu, Wenqing; Wang, Quan#; Li, Jun#; Besra, Gurdyal S.#; Rao, Zihe#.Structures of cell wall arabinosyltransferases with the anti-tuberculosis drug ethambutol. SCIENCE. 12 Jun 2020. 368(6496):1211.

  2. Zhang, Lu*; Zhao, Yao*; Gao, Ruogu*; Li, Jun; Yang, Xiuna; Gao, Yan; Zhao, Wei; Gurcha, Sudagar S.; Veerapen, Natacha; Batt, Sarah M.; Besra, Kajelle Kaur; Xu, Wenqing; Bi, Lijun; Zhang, Xian'en; Guddat, Luke W.; Yang, Haitao; Wang, Quan#; Besra, Gurdyal S.#; Rao, Zihe#.Cryo-EM snapshots of mycobacterial arabinosyltransferase complex EmbB(2)-AcpM(2). PROTEIN & CELL. 03 May 2020.

  3. Zhang, Bing*; Li, Jun#; Yang, Xiaolin; Wu, Lijie; Zhang, Jia; Yang, Yang; Zhao, Yao; Zhang, Lu; Yang, Xiuna; Yang, Xiaobao; Cheng, Xi; Liu, Zhijie; Jiang, Biao; Jiang, Hualiang; Guddat, Luke W.; Yang, Haitao#; Rao, Zihe#.Crystal Structures of Membrane Transporter MmpL3, an Anti-TB Drug Target. CELL. 24 Jan 2019. 176(3):636-+.