Sun Sun


Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A5300
Austin, TX 78712-0165





















Contact Information


Office: WEL: 4.260B
Phone: 471-8645

Lab


Office: WEL 4.258
Phone:
Fax:

Yan Jessie Zhang


jeszhang@mail.utexas.edu
Assistant Professor


Research Group


Zhang Research Group

Education


PhD, The Scripps Research Institute, 2004
BS, Tsinghuan University, China, 1997
MS, University of Oregon, 2000

The Salk Institute for Biological Research

Affiliations


Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology;

Structural and biophysical studies of enzymes in oncology pathways, structure-based drug design.


A major focus of Zhang's research is the elucidation of the fundamental principles of transcriptional regulation and their impact on tumor and stem cell differentiation. The primary experimental approaches used in the laboratory are macromolecular structure determination and allied biophysical techniques. The transcription of DNA information into mature RNA messages requires a temporally changing transcription apparatus, which is assembled from RNA polymerase II and various processing factors. The appropriate assembly of the transcription apparatus is governed by information programmed in the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. This so-called 'CTD code' operates through changes in the conformation of CTD, which are effected largely through alteration of the phosphorylation state of this domain. Zhang’s main research interests focus on how phosphorylation of CTD is regulated and how this phosphorylation affects the outcome of transcription, and in turn, how these processes are involved in important biological phenomena such as cancer and neurogenesis. Ultimately, Zhang aims to exploit the results from this research in the design of small molecule effectors that can intervene in the CTD processes and thereby function as regulators of gene expression.

Representative Publications



Zhang Y, Daum S, Wilderman D, Zhou XZ, Verdecia MA, Bowman ME, Hunter T, Lu KP, Fischer G, Noel JP "Structural basis for high affinity peptide based inhibition of human Pin1" ACS Chem. Biol. 2 (5) (2007): 320-328.

Zhang Y, Kim Y, Genoud N, Gao J, Kelly JW, Pfaff SL, Gill GN, Dixon JE and Noel JP "Preferential dephosphorylation of CTD by Scp1: complex structure of phosphatase Scp1 with ...cut..." Mol Cell 24 (2006): 759-70.

Jager M*, Zhang Y*, Nguyen H, Dendle G, Bowman ME, Gruebele M, Kelly JW "Structure-function-folding relationship in a WW domain" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103 (28) (2006): 10648-53.

Zhang Y*, Wang L*, Schultz PG, Wilson IA "Crystal Structure of apo M. jannashii Tyrosyl-tRNA Synthetase and its O-methyl mutant" Protein Sci. 14(5) (2005): 1340-9.

Zhang Y, Desharnais J, Marsilje TH, Li C, Hedrick MP, Gooljarsingh LT, Tavassoli A, Benkov...cut... "Rational design, synthesis, evaluation, and crystal structure of a potent inhibitor of hum...cut..." Biochemistry 42(20) (2003): 6043-6056.

Zhang Y, Desharnais J, Greasley SE, Beardsley GP, Boger DL, Wilson IA "Crystal structures of human GAR Tfase at low and high pH and with substrate beta-GAR" Biochemistry 41(48) (2002): 14206-14215.