Career Biography

Dr. Kai Zhang received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2002. In 2008, he earned his PhD in Chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley under the supervision of Prof. Haw Yang. His PhD work focused on the development of experimental and theoretical framework for single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy and nonlinear optical microscopy. In 2009, he joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral scholar in Prof. Bianxiao Cui’s laboratory and made a transition from the field of physical chemistry to neurobiology, studying axonal transport in neuronal diseases with single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, as well as light-controlled signal transduction in live cells. In 2014, Dr. Zhang joined the Biochemistry Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as an assistant professor. At Illinois, the Zhang laboratory studies how growth factor-mediated signal transduction regulates cell fate determination and how this signaling process is compromised in neurological diseases. The long-term goal of Zhang’s research is to delineate how spatiotemporal regulation of growth factor-mediated signal pathways regulates cell fate determination during early embryonic development and diseases.

Growth factor-mediated signal transduction is heavily involved in embryonic development, aging, as well as diseases. The long-term goal of my research is to decode the dynamic information of growth factor-mediated intracellular signal transduction in live cells and multicellular organisms. Insights gained through my research program will help design novel strategies for rescuing phenotypic cellular outcomes in diseases such as neurological disorders and cancers. To achieve this goal, I have integrated multi-disciplinary research approaches including optogenetics, single-molecule microscopy, microfluidics, as well as biophysical and biochemical techniques to probe the intracellular signal transduction. Results from our research will provide a quantitative understanding of the signaling dynamics of growth factor-mediated signal transduction. Our research will also generate a library of enabling biotechnological tools for the scientific community of molecular and cellular biology.

Lab URL:

Highlighted Publications:

Applications of Optobiology in Intact Cells and Multicellular Organisms (Review article)
Journal of Molecular Biology, Volume 429, Issue 20, 13 October 2017, Pages 2999-3017

John S. Khamo, Vishnu V. Krishnamurthy, Savanna R. Sharum, Payel Mondal, Kai Zhang

Reversible optogenetic control of kinase activity during differentiation and embryonic development, Development, 2016, 143, 4085-4094.V. V. Krishnamurthy, J.S. Khamo, W. Mei, A. J. Turgeon, H. M. Ashraf, P. Mondal, D. B. Patel, N. Risner, E. E. Cho, J. Yang*, and K. Zhang

Light-mediated reversible modulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway during cell differentiation and Xenopus embryonic development, J. Vis. Exp., 2017, 124, e55823. V. V. Krishnamurthy, A. J. Turgeon, J.S. Khamo, P. Mondal, S. R. Sharum, W. Mei, J. Yang*, and K. Zhang

Drive The Car(go)s—New Modalities to Control Cargo Trafficking in Live Cells, Front. Mol. Neurosci.2017, 10, 4. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2017.00004. P. Mondal, J. S. Khamo, V. V. Krishnamurthy, Q. Cai, and K. Zhang

Multiplex gene removal by two-step polymerase chain reactions, Analytical Biochemistry, 2015, 481, 7-9. V. V. Krishnamurthy, J. S. Khamo, E. Cho, C. Schornak, and K. Zhang

Optogenetic control of intracellular signaling pathways, Trends in Biotechnology, 2015, 33, 92-100. K. Zhang* and B. Cui
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