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
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2021
Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Senior Principal Investigator
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2020
SUSTech · School of Life Sciences President
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2004
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Professor
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2000
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Associate Professor
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1995
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Assistant Professor
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1994 - 1995
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Postdoc
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1994
University of Calgary PhD
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1988
Fudan University Bachelor
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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.
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
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.