Zhengjun Chen, PhDDistinguished Adjunct Professor from CAS

We have two major research interests. The first one, our permanent interest, is to study tyrosine Phosphoprotein Signaling Networks that control cell mobility, proliferation, metabolism and cell transformation. Particularly, we are interested in studying how receptor tyrosine kinases like EGFR and Insulin Receptor interpret extracellular cues and integrate these signals into intracellular signaling modules and scaffolds that regulate the cellular dynamic processes. Mechanistic studies determine how they transmit signals that control the dynamic assemble of phosphorylated protein complexes to mediate the cell processes. We develop and utilize advanced phosphoproteomic approaches to discover novel tyrosine phosphorylated protein(s), linking(s) and cross-talk(s) in a proteome-scale. The long-term goal of the project is to identify novel pharmaceutical targets for diagnostic and treatment of cancer and diabetes. Cell Polarity has been implicated correlation with cell proliferation, migration as well as tumorigenesis. Thus, the second one, the newly emerged interest, is to understand how cell polarity protein complexes convert their polarity functions into other cellular processes in epithelia. The objective is to uncover novel molecular mechanisms that regulate cellular intrinsic linkage between the cell polarity and migration, proliferation, and tumorigenesis as well.