Research Experience
2021-now: Associate Professor, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University
2015-2021: Assistant Professor, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University
2015-now: Principal Investigator, PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Synthetic and Functional Biomolecules Center, Peking University.
2013-2015: Postdoc Fellow, Harvard University
2007-2012: Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2003-2007: B.S. in Chemistry and in Physics (double major), Peking University
Research Interests
Our research focuses on inventing chemistry-enabled tools to study cellular structures, functions and signaling pathways, with a particular focus on neuroscience. We strive to understand how neuronal activities arise through the complex interplay between physical forces, chemical signals, and biological macromolecules. This mainly follows two lines of efforts: enzyme-based probes for profiling biomolecules in neurons, and optical reporters for neural activities. Our methods are drawing from a wide range of techniques, including protein engineering, molecular biology, chemical synthesis, fluorescence microscopy, computer programming and quantitative modeling. Research projects include:
- Optical recording of action potential waveforms with genetically-encoded voltage indicators
- Chemical labeling technique for mapping neuronal RNA localizations
- Proximity tagging methods for profiling synaptic protein synthesis
Selected Publications
- Zhang, W., Fu, Y., Peng, L., Ogawa, Y., Ding, X., Rasband, A., Zhou, X., Shelly, M., Rasband M. N.* and Zou, P.* (2023). Immunoproximity biotinylation reveals the axon initial segment proteome. Nat. Commun. 14, 8201.
- Han, Y.#, Yang, J.#,*, Li, Y.#, Chen, Y.#, Ren, H., Ding, R., Qian, W., Ren, K., Xie, B., Deng, M., Xiao, Y., Chu, J. and Zou, P.* (2023). Bright and sensitive red voltage indicators for imaging action potentials in brain slices and pancreatic islets. Sci. Adv. 9, eadi4208.
- Ren, Z.#, Tang, W.#, Peng, L. and Zou, P.* (2023). Profiling stress-triggered RNA condensation with photocatalytic proximity labeling. Nat. Commun. 14, 7390.
- Yuan, F.#, Li, Y.#, Zhou, X. and Zou, P.* (2023). Spatially resolved mapping of proteome turnover dynamics with subcellular precision. Nat. Commun. 14, 7217.
- Peng, L. and Zou, P.* (2023). Supertemporal resolution imaging of membrane potential via stroboscopic microscopy. Chem. Biomed. Imaging 1, 448–460. (Selected as ACS Editor’s Choice)
- Zheng, F., Yu, C., Zhou, X. and Zou, P.* (2023). Genetically encoded photocatalytic protein labeling enables spatially-resolved profiling of intracellular proteome. Nat. Commun. 14, 2978.
- Liu, S.#, Lin, C.#, Xu, Y.#, Luo, H., Peng, L., Zeng, X., Zheng, H., Chen, P. R.* and Zou, P.* (2021). A far-red hybrid voltage indicator enabled by bioorthogonal engineering of rhodopsin on live neurons. Nat. Chem. 13, 472-479.
- Ding, T.#, Zhu, L.#, Fang, Y., Liu, Y., Tang, W. and Zou, P.* (2020). Chromophore-assisted proximity labeling of DNA reveals chromosomal organization in living cells. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 59, 22933-22937. (Selected as Hot Paper)
- Wang, P.#, Tang, W.#, Li, Z.#, Zou, Z., Zhou, Y., Li, R., Xiong, T., Wang, J.* and Zou, P.* (2019). Mapping spatial transcriptome with light-activated proximity-dependent RNA labeling. Nat. Chem. Biol. 15, 1110-1119.
