Jin Zhang (biochemist)

The native form of this personal name is Zhang Jin. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Jin Zhang (Chinese: 张瑾; pinyin: Zhāng Jǐn; born February 29, 1972) is a Chinese-American biochemist. She is a professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry, and biomedical engineering at the University of California, San Diego.

Early life and education

Zhang was born in Beijing, China. She received her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1995. She completed her PhD with David G. Lynn at the University of Chicago in 2000, and conducted postdoctoral research with Roger Y. Tsien and Susan S. Taylor at the University of California, San Diego.^[1]

Academic career

Following her postdoc at UCSD, Zhang joined the faculty in the department of pharmacology and molecular sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2003.^[2] At Johns Hopkins, she was a member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2013, she was promoted to full professor in the departments of pharmacology and molecular sciences, Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience and department of oncology, and department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.^[3]

In 2015, Zhang relocated her lab to UCSD, where she is a professor in the departments of pharmacology, bioengineering, and chemistry and biochemistry. She is a member of the Moores Cancer Center. Zhang is also director and cofounder of the Bio-Optical Probe Advancement Center at UCSD.^[4][5]

Zhang is an editorial board member for Cell Chemical Biology.^[6]

Research

The Zhang group is interested in developing genetically encoded fluorescent protein-based biosensors for kinases,^[7] similar to those developed for calcium imaging. Genetically encoded biosensors utilize a kinase-specific substrate fused to fluorescent proteins and a phosphoamino acid binding domain, which change FRET ratio or fluorescence intensity based on kinase activity.^[8] Zhang and her lab have used this method to study several kinases, including protein kinase A,^[9][10] protein kinase C,^[11] and mechanistic target of rapamycin,^[12] among others. The Zhang group has also worked on super-resolution imaging techniques, including photochromic stochastic optical fluctuation imaging (pcSOFI),^[13] a variant of super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging, and fluorescence fluctuation increase by contact imaging (FLINC), which has been used to generate super-resolution kinase biosensors^[14]

Zhang, along with the help from Johns Hopkins Laboratories, is also credited for the creation of a new technique referred to as CAESAR. This technique was designed to experimentally identify substrates for unique kinases. It results in high-quality KSRs.^[15]

Honors and awards

Zhang has received many honors and awards including:

• Lucent Technologies Fund, the University of Chicago (2000)
• Postdoctoral fellowship, La Jolla Interfaces in Science and Burroughs Wellcome Fund (2002-2003)
• Gordon Research Conference Young Scientist Research Award, Bioorganic Chemistry (2003)
• FAMRI Young Clinical Scientist Award, Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (2004-2009)
• National Scientist Development Award, American Heart Association (2005-2008)
• 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award (2006–2008)
• Margaret Oakley Dayoff Award, the Biophysical Society (2009)
• NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2009–2014)^[16]
• Finalist Prize, Creative Promise in Biomedical Research, the Vilcek Foundation (2010)
• John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (2012)
• Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, American Chemical Society (2012)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2014)
• NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (2015-2022)^[17]
• Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry Lecture, Experimental Biology (2017)
• International Chemical Biology Society Global Lectureship (2019)^[18]
• Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2019)^[19]
• Fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (2021)^[20]

References

1. Weidmann, Alyson (2018-07-20). "In Memoriam: Roger Tsien (1952—2016)". ACS Chemical Biology. 13 (7): 1700–1704. doi:10.1021/acschembio.8b00617. ISSN 1554-8929. S2CID 51703317.
2. "Zhang, Jin". UC San Diego Chemistry and Biochemistry. 27 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
3. Marra, Jen La. "Jin Zhang". www.hopkinsmedicine.org. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
4. Zhang, Jin (August 2016). "An Interview with Jin Zhang". Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. 37 (8): 619–620. doi:10.1016/j.tips.2016.05.009. PMID 27290877.
5. "Welcome to Zhang Lab | Zhang Lab". jinzhanglab.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
6. "Editorial Board: Cell Chemical Biology". www.cell.com. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
7. Tsien, Roger Y.; Alice Y. Ting; Campbell, Robert E.; Zhang, Jin (December 2002). "Creating new fluorescent probes for cell biology". Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 3 (12): 906–918. doi:10.1038/nrm976. ISSN 1471-0080. PMID 12461557. S2CID 11588100.
8. Greenwald, Eric C.; Mehta, Sohum; Zhang, Jin (2018-12-14). "Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Biosensors Illuminate the Spatiotemporal Regulation of Signaling Networks". Chemical Reviews. 118 (24): 11707–11794. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00333. ISSN 1520-6890. PMC 7462118. PMID 30550275.
9. Zhang, J.; Ma, Y.; Taylor, S. S.; Tsien, R. Y. (2001-12-18). "Genetically encoded reporters of protein kinase A activity reveal impact of substrate tethering". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 98 (26): 14997–15002. Bibcode:2001PNAS...9814997Z. doi:10.1073/pnas.211566798. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 64972. PMID 11752448.
10. "Protein kinase A activated in the nucleus as well as the cytoplasm". News-Medical.net. 2012-06-27. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
11. Violin, Jonathan D.; Zhang, Jin; Tsien, Roger Y.; Newton, Alexandra C. (2003-06-09). "A genetically encoded fluorescent reporter reveals oscillatory phosphorylation by protein kinase C". The Journal of Cell Biology. 161 (5): 899–909. doi:10.1083/jcb.200302125. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 2172956. PMID 12782683.
12. Zhou, Xin; Clister, Terri L.; Lowry, Pamela R.; Seldin, Marcus M.; Wong, G. William; Zhang, Jin (2015-03-17). "Dynamic Visualization of mTORC1 Activity in Living Cells". Cell Reports. 10 (10): 1767–1777. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2015.02.031. ISSN 2211-1247. PMC 4567530. PMID 25772363.
13. Dedecker, Peter; Mo, Gary C. H.; Dertinger, Thomas; Zhang, Jin (2012-07-03). "Widely accessible method for superresolution fluorescence imaging of living systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 109 (27): 10909–10914. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10910909D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1204917109. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 3390831. PMID 22711840.
14. Mo, Gary C. H.; Ross, Brian; Hertel, Fabian; Manna, Premashis; Yang, Xinxing; Greenwald, Eric; Booth, Chris; Plummer, Ashlee M.; Tenner, Brian (April 2017). "Genetically encoded biosensors for visualizing live-cell biochemical activity at super-resolution". Nature Methods. 14 (4): 427–434. doi:10.1038/nmeth.4221. ISSN 1548-7105. PMC 5388356. PMID 28288122.
15. "Welcome to Zhang Lab | Zhang Lab". jinzhanglab.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
16. "NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program - 2009 Award Recipients | NIH Common Fund". commonfund.nih.gov. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
17. "2015 Recipients of NCI Outstanding Investigator Awards". National Cancer Institute. 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
18. "Dr. Jin Zhang selected for the 2019 ICBS Global Lectureship - International Chemical Biology Society". www.chemical-biology.org. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
19. "UC San Diego Researchers Inducted to Renowned Medical and Biological Engineering Organization". ucsdnews.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
20. "2021 Fellows". Default. Retrieved 2022-02-12.