Chen Jianfeng

Biography

CHEN Jianfeng , Professor Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue-yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China.

Research Interest

The research interests of our group focus on the cell adhesion molecules. We try to understand the mechanism and biological function of integrin-ligand interaction and its bidirectional signal transduction across plasma membrane. Integrins are a family of heterodimeric cell adhesion molecules with noncovalently associated α and β subunits that mediate cell-cell, cell-matrix and cell-pathogen interactions. They play vital roles in the pathogenesis of many human diseases. We mainly work on three integrins: α4β7, α4β1 and α6β4. Integrin α4β7 and α4β1 are lymphocyte homing receptors which can mediate both rolling and firm adhesion of lymphocyte on their ligands. α4 integrins have been implicated in many inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn´s disease, ulcerative colitis and multiple sclerosis. Integrin α6β4 maintains the integrity of epithelia through hemidesmosomes, which has been implicated in carcinoma metastasis. All of the biological functions of integrins rely on their interaction with ligands and associated signaling. Understanding of the mechanism of the dynamic regulation of integrin-ligand interaction and its signaling is critical for finding new therapeutics for the above diseases. We use wide range of techniques to addressing the following questions: How integrin control its interaction to ligand? How is the integrin conformation before, during and after ligand binding? How the ligand binding transfers signal into the cells and trigger the intracellular signaling pathway? What happened in the cells after integrin is activated? How integrin is activated by intracellular signals? How integrin is activated to recognize different ligands? In addition, we are also interested in generating antibodies targeting integrins for therapeutics