Hong Zhang
Professor
Institute of Biophysics
Chinese Academy of Sciences
China
Biography
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Research Fellow, February 2001 to March 2004, Department of Molecular Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, January 2001 Beijing Institute for Cancer Research, Beijing Medical University, M.S. in Tumor Biology, July 1994 Department of Biochemistry, Anhui University, B.S. in Biochemistry, July 1991
Research Interest
Autophagy involves the enclosure of cytoplasmic material in the autophagosome and its subsequent delivery to the lysosome for degradation. Studies of autophagy in yeast have laid the groundwork for a molecular understanding of the autophagy pathway, but fail to consider unique multicellular animal-specific mechanisms for the regulation and function of autophagy. The research interest of our lab currently focuses on the molecular mechanism of the autophagic machinery, the regulation of autophagy activity during development and the physiological function of autophagy. First, we are using C. elegans as a model to identify essential components for basal autophagy and tissue specific variants of autophagy. The molecular mechanism of the identified components will be investigated. Second, using degradation of protein aggregates during C. elegans embryogenesis as a model, we are studying how protein aggregates are selectively recognized and removed by autophagy. Third, we are investigating how autophagic machinery integrates signals from other cells and environmental conditions to maintain cell, tissue and organism homeostasis. Fourth, we are characterizing the function of metazoan-specific autophagy genes in neurodegenerative diseases, especially the molecular mechanism underlying the selective vulnerability of certain neuronal populations. These ongoing studies will provide insights into the molecular mechanism of autophagy and also the mechanism of various diseases associated with impaired autophagy such as neurodegeneration.
Publications
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3. Zhao, G.Y., Sun, L., Mia, G.Y., Ji, C.C., Zhao, H.Y., Sun, H.Y., Miao, L., Yoshii, S.R., Mizushima, N., Wang X.Q., and Zhang, H. (2015) The autophagy gene Wdr45/Wipi4 regulates learning and memory function and axonal homeostasis. Autophagy 11, 881-890.
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2. Wu, F., Watanabe, Y., Guo, X.Y., Qi, X., Wang, P., Zhao, H.Y., Wang, Z., Fujioka, Y., Zhang, H., Ren, J.Q., Fang, T.C., Shen, Y.X., Feng, W., Hu, J.J., Noda, N.N. and Zhang, H. (2015) Structural basis of the differential function of the two C. elegans Atg8 homologs, LGG-1 and LGG-2, in autophagy. Molecular Cell 60, 914-929.
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1. Wang, Z., Miao, G.Y., Xue, X., Guo, X.Y., Yuan, C.Z., Wang, Z.Y., Zhang, G.M., Feng, D., Hu, J.J., and Zhang, H. (2016) The Vici syndrome protein EPG5 is a Rab7 effector that determines the fusion specificity of autophagosomes with late endosomes/lysosomes. Molecular Cell 63, 781-795.
