Jin Zhang Lab

Last week we said “au revoir” to Prof. Xavier Nicol, who joined us for his sabbatical over the last year. It’s been great to have him for discussions and ideas, and we’re excited to keep working with him on collaborations!

Emily posing with Jin

Emily posing with the Dragon Knife about to cut a celebratory cake

Congratulations to Dr Emily Pool, who defended her thesis last week! She’s been an incredible asset to the lab, from her precision, to her mentorship, to the subject of her work, phase separation of PKA regulatory subunits. We’re so excited to see what she does next! Congrats, Dr. Pool!

3D rendering of a Ankyrin R adaptor protein

We are counting down the days to our Protein Science Symposium on June 10-12! Thrilled to be hosting our colleagues from WCM @weillcornell.bsky.social as well as keynote speakers Dr. Christopher Lima @christopherdlima.bsky.social and Dr. ‪Jin Zhang @jinzhanglab.bsky.social

Three cakes! 🎂🎂🎂 The Zhang lab is full of May birthdays! Happy birthday to grad students Rosie and Max, and to postdoc Su-Hyun. (And belated birthdays to postdocs Nick and Ben, not part of today’s triple cake event, but celebrated nonetheless)
#dragonknife

Self-assembling Molecules Take the Spotlight at Research Expo 2025 UC San Diego materials science and engineering Ph.D. student Liya Bi won the grand prize at the 43rd annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo for his work studying how molecules organize them...

Read a recap of the event and all the poster prize winners here!

today.ucsd.edu/story/self-a...

Congratulations to graduate student Rosie Zhou, who won the Shu and KC Chien Best Poster in Bioengineering award at the annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo for her poster “Visualizing Protein Communication in Human Cells to Improve Cancer Treatment”
@jacobsschool.bsky.social

Graduate Student Yingqi Zhu won the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program predoctoral research award. This grant will support her work on "Spatiotemporal cGAMP Signaling in Tobacco-Induced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Metastasis."

Postdoc Dr. Nick Bergkamp received the Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Dutch Research Council, and the Van Zweiten PHD Thesis Award. The Rubicon Fellowship will support his project, "Location, location, location - Spatial Organization of AT1R-mediated ERK Signaling in the Diseased Heart."

Headshots of Dr. Nick Bergkamp and Yingqi Zhu, along with the titles of their awards and their projects. For Nick, the Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellowship- Dutch Research Council and Van Zwieten PHD Thesis Award, for the project "Location, location, location - Spatial organization of AT1R-Galphaq-mediated ERK signaling in the diseased heart." For Yingqi, The 2025 TRDRP Predoctoral Award for her project, Spatiotemporal cGAMP signaling in Tobacco-induced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Metastasis

Congratulations to two members of the lab on receiving fellowships and prizes! We're very proud of them, and these awards will support their work on signaling in heart disease and lung cancer, respectively.
Details in the thread for each of their projects. 🧵

As Michelle mentioned, this paper was an incredible team effort, especially from two current graduate students, Samantha Sanchez and Xinchang He, who finished up many aspects of the project within the lab!

So happy to see Michelle’s excellent paper from her postdoc with us now out! Her expertise allowed us to develop a new class of KARs with enhanced dynamic range and shifted to the far-red.

Everyone should keep an eye on her independent career, more incredible work is on the way!

Your yearly reminder to acknowledge the core facilities you use and their staff scientists in your papers. These scientists are a crucial part of the scientific ecosystem and to continue to exist they need tangible credit for their work. Plus their associated expertise adds credibility to your work.

🧵 1/6
Just dropped in @naturecomms.bsky.social

We’ve engineered the most photostable yellow fluorescent proteins (YFPs) to date—mGold2s and mGold2t—with up to 25× greater photostability than mVenus and mCitrine, without compromising brightness.

👇
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to graduate student Ayse Sahan and former student Shawn Mingyuan Chen on the publication of their lipid biosensors in PNAS! With these sensors, we’re able to track PI(3,4)P2 and PIP3 signaling in the cell, and show the lysosome is a PIP3 signaling site. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

A photo of three people and three cakes. Qian is in the front, holding a serrated knife with dragon accents, poised over a fruit tart. Behind her and bending left is Pal, and behind him and bending right is Skott.

Last week we celebrated 3 lab birthdays! Happy birthday to grad students Qian and Pal, and Project Scientist Scott! #DragonKnife

STAND UP FOR SCIENCE! Join us and thousands nationwide on Friday, March 7th at noon at the UC San Diego Geisel Library / Silent Tree

Qi holding the dragon knife, preparing to slice a cake.

Qi wearing a navy sweater with the Jin Zhang Lab logo, and holding a mug highlighting his work on a PKC sensor and novel phase separation proteins.

Qi and Jin standing next to each other and smiling.

On Friday we had our lab farewell party for postdoc @chrisqs.bsky.social, with lunch, cake, and lab sweater and mug! #DragonKnife Qi is moving on to a position in Dr. Diane Simeone’s lab at Moores Cancer Center. We’ve loved working with Qi, and are excited to see what he does going forward!

Dr. Anneliese Gest, a postdoc, will be presenting poster B355: Mechanistic Investigation of a sAC-Dependent PKA activation in mitochondrial dysfunction in the Mitochondria in life and death session Anne Lyons, PhD Candidate, will be presenting poster B589: illuminating the dynamic kinome in living cells with KARkey in the Biosensors session. The image contains a headshot for each, and the Jin Zhang lab logo

Two members of the lab, @ammgest.bsky.social and @anne-lyons-bioe.bsky.social will be at the Biophysical Society Meeting #bps2025 02/15 -02/19! Check out their posters on 02/18 from 1:45 to 2:45!

Today, I would like to honor the memory of Roger Y. Tsien, born on February 1, 1952. His legacy lives with all who use his technologies, including calcium sensors, fluorescent proteins, the acetoxymethyl (AM) ester, & many more!

www.nature.com/articles/nme...

#FluorescenceFriday

Ah thanks! This is excellent!

(Also taking starter pack suggestions to build back up to the number and kind of folks we followed on the other website)

Hello Bluesky! We're a UC San Diego-based lab that studies cellular signaling, and makes genetically encoded biosensors to study those signals. Talk to us about kinases, fluorescent proteins, GPCRs, and imaging technology!