Synthetic Biology seminar on membrane proteins

Talk by Shuguang Zhang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Shuguang Zhang’s laboratory since 2004 focuses on study of structure and function of membrane proteins, particularly G-protein coupled-receptors including olfactory receptor and chemokine receptors. His lab is not only interested in understanding the dynamics how GPCRs recognize their corresponding small chemical, peptide and protein ligands, but also how these GPCRs with similar structural folds play indispensible roles in a wide spectrum of diverse intercellular communications and communicate with the external world. Since membrane proteins are nature-made elegant and sophisticated molecular machines, Zhang’s lab is also interested in design and fabricate membrane protein-based molecular devices, combing with other materials, from direct capture solar energy to ultra-sensitive sensing devices.

Shuguang Zhang is at the Center for Biomedical Engineering and Center for Bits & Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. from Sichuan University, China and Ph.D. in biochemistry & molecular biology from University of California at Santa Barbara, USA. He was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow and later a Whitaker Foundation Investigator at MIT. He is member of AAAS, American Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, the Protein Society, Sigma Xi. He received an honorary professorship from Sichuan University. He was also an elected Chang Jiang distinguished scholar in China. He was a 2003 Fellow of Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS fellow). His work of designer self-assembling peptide scaffold won 2004 R&D100 award. His and his colleagues’ work for direct harvesting biosolar energy was selected to be the Top 100 Science Stories in 2004 by Discover Magazine and one of the 10 finalists of the 2005 Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas. He was one of the 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Fellows. He was the recipient of the 2006 Wilhelm Exner Medal of Austria.