Science

Science

Science

Zhang, Mingjie

Zhang, Mingjie

Mingjie ZHANG

Greater Bay Biomedical InnoCenter

Senior Principal Investigator

mzhang@ust.hk

Home page of research group:http://bcz102.ust.hk/Lab/home.html

Timeline

  • 2021

    Shenzhen Bay Laboratory         Senior Principal Investigator

  • 2020

    SUSTech · School of Life Sciences         President

  • 2004

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)         Professor

  • 2000

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)         Associate Professor

  • 1995

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)         Assistant Professor

  • 1994 - 1995

    Ontario Institute for Cancer Research         Postdoc

  • 1994

    University of Calgary         PhD

  • 1988

    Fudan University         Bachelor

  • 2021

    Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)         Professor & President of the School of Life Science









Research Areas


Professor Zhang’s lab focus on neuronal structural biology. His group aim to understand the molecular mechanisms governing the organization, assembly, plasticity, and signaling transduction events of key neuronal subcellular domains (e.g., synapses and axon initial segments) using a combination of NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology approaches. 






Highlights


Professor Mingjie Zhang was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in Sept. 1966. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Fudan University, Shanghai in 1988, and his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in the University of Calgary, Canada in 1994. After a brief postdoctoral training in the Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada, he established his own laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 1995 as an assistant professor, and then became a Chair Professor in the Division of Life Science, HKUST. In 2021, professor Mingjie Zhang joined Southern University of Science and Technology and Shenzhen Bay Laboratory.

Research in Prof Zhang’s laboratory has been focusing on two areas in the past 20 years. The first area concerns the structural and biochemical basis of neuronal signaling complex organization by scaffold proteins. The second area is how neurons develop polarity during their development and maintain the polarity in their adulthood.  Prof Zhang’s research findings have broadened the understanding of basic biological areas including neuronal development and signaling, providing important theoretical basis for the pathological mechanism of various nervous system diseases such as stroke, neurological disorders, hereditary deafness and blindness. Prof Zhang has published more than 200 research articles in prestigious scientific journals including Science and Cell. Additionally, Prof Zhang has won a number of awards (e.g. 2006 State Natural Science Award,2011 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and technological Progress, and Tan Jiazhen Life Science award 2021 etc) for his excellence in scientific research. Prof Zhang was elected as a member of The Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011 and was a founding member of Hong Kong Academy of Science in 2015. Prof Zhang has been dedicating huge amount of his energy in training younger generation of scientists. More than a dozen of Ph.D. graduates and postdoctoral fellows trained in his lab have established their independent research groups around the world.

Molecular architectures of the Pre- and post-synapses. 

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Honors


• 2021   Tan Jiazhen Life Science Award
• 2018   Croucher Senior Research Fellowship
• 2017   Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative - Research Award
• 2015   Founding Member, The Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong
• 2011   Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress
• 2011   Elected Member, The Chinese Academy of Science
• 2006   The State Natural Science Award, Second Class Award
• 2003   Croucher Senior Research Fellowship






Related News


PhoenixTV Interview https://newshub.sustech.edu.cn/zh/html/202010/38807.html

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Selected Publications


1. Zeng, M., Díaz-Alonso, J., Ye, F., Chen, X., Xu, J., Ji, Z., Nicoll, RA., and Zhang, M.(2019) “Phase Separation-Mediated TARP/MAGUK Complex Condensation and AMPA Receptor Synaptic Transmission ”. Neuron, 104, 1-15.

2. Zeng, M., Chen, X., Guan, D., Xu, J., Wu, H., Tong, P., and Zhang, M.(2018) “Reconstituted Postsynaptic Density as a Molecular Platform for Understanding Synapse Formation and Plasticity”. Cell, 174, 1-16.

3. Li, J., Zhu, R., Chen, K., Zheng, H., Zhao, H., Yuan, C., Zhang, H., Wang, C., and Zhang, M.(2018) “Potent and specific Atg8-targeting autophagy inhibitory peptides from giant ankyrins”. Nature Chemical Biology, 14, pages778–787.

4. Ye, F., Kang, E., Yu, C., Qian, X., Jacob, F., Yu, C., Song, H., Ming, G., and Zhang, M.(2017) “DISC1 regulates neurogenesis via modulating kinetochore attachment of Ndel1/Nde1 during mitosis”. Neuron, 114(41), E8760-E8769.

5. Zeng, M. Shang, Y., Araki, Y., Guo, T., Huganir, R. L., and Zhang, M.(2016) “Phase transition in postsynaptic densities underlies formation of synaptic complexes and synaptic plasticity”. Cell 166, 1163-1175.