Yan Zhang

Biography

 Dr. Yan Jessie Zhang graduated from The Scripps Research Institute with her Ph.D. in 2004. Her thesis research mentored by Dr. Ian A. Wilson focused on the structure-based drug design targeting an enzyme involved in de novo purine synthesis. One of the drugs from this research is now in pre-clinic trial for solid tumor. Before that, she obtained her B.S in Tsinghua University in China in the area of medicinal chemistry and later came to U.S., obtaining crystallographic training from Dr. Brian W. Matthews of University of Oregon where she received her masters degree. Upon finishing her graduate study, Jessie went to her postdoc in Dr. Joseph P. Noel lab in Salk Institute, to study the structure-function relationship of enzymes in transcription and oncogenic pathways.  Dr. Zhang joined the faculty of Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2008. A major focus of Jessie's research is the elucidation of the fundamental principles of transcriptional regulation and their impact in neuronal stem cell differentiation. She focuses on the phosphatase families that target the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II. 

Research Interest

 The primary experimental approaches used in the laboratory are macromolecular structure determination and allied biophysical techniques.