Distinguished Scholar Club -- DingPeng Zhang & Wanyu Li

DingPeng (Peng) Zhang, Ph.D.

Current position

Research fellow, 

Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

Biography

Peng received his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he developed methodology using peptide ligases to make antibody drug conjugate. He joined Dr. Xin Zhou’s lab in 2022 and Dr. Wenyi Wei’s lab in 2024. As a chemical biologist, Peng is interested in a broad range of technical and biological questions, including developing methods for targeting protein degradation and stabilization, characterizing the pharmacological kinetics, efficacy, and understanding the basic mechanism of action of the engineered compounds.

Talk title

Bridging the gap in protein targeting by hijacking transferrin receptor 1

Highlighted publications (*denotes co-first author)

1. Zhang, D., Duque-Jimenez, J., Facchinetti, F., et al. Transferrin receptor targeting chimeras for membrane protein degradation. Nature (2024).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07947-3

2. Inuzuka, H., Qian, C., Qi, Y., Xiong, Y., Wang, C., Wang, Z., Zhang, D., et al. Targeted Degradation of Receptor-Interacting Protein Kinase 1 to Modulate the Necroptosis Pathway. ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science (2024). 

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.4c00421

3. Zhang, D.*, Wang, Z.*, Hu, S., et al. Asparaginyl endopeptidase-mediated protein C-terminal hydrazinolysis for the synthesis of bioconjugates. Bioconjugate Chemistry. 33, 1, 238–247 (2022). 

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.1c00551

4. Zhang, D.*, Wang, Z.*, Hu, S., et al. A versatile peptide ligase for precision tailoring of proteins. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(1), 458 (2022).

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010458

5. Zhang, D.*, Wang, Z.*, Hu, S., et al. pH-Controlled Protein Orthogonal Ligation Using Asparaginyl Peptide Ligases. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(23), 8704-8712 (2021). 

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c02638

Wanyu Li

Current position

Ph.D. student, 

Harvard Medical School

Biography

Wanyu Li is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Abraham. He obtained his BS and MS at the University of California San Diego where he studied host-virus interaction in the lab of Dr. Tariq Rana. At HMS, he is interested in functional, structural, and evolutionary characterization of cellular receptors for arboviruses.

Talk Title

Shifts in receptors during submergence of an encephalitic arbovirus

Highlighted publications (* denotes co-first author)

1. Li, W., Plante, J.A., Lin, C. et al. Shifts in receptors during submergence of an encephalitic arbovirus. Nature 632, 614–621 (2024).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07740-2

2. Yang, P.*, Li, W.*, Fan, X. et al. Structural basis for VLDLR recognition by eastern equine encephalitis virus. Nat Commun 15, 6548 (2024).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50887-9

3. Wang, S.*, Li, W.*, Wang, L. et al. Interferon-Inducible Guanylate-Binding Protein 5 Inhibits Replication of Multiple Viruses by Binding to the Oligosaccharyltransferase Complex and Inhibiting Glycoprotein Maturation. bioRxiv.

https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.01.591800

4. Wang, S.*, Li, W.*, Hui, H. et al. Cholesterol 25‐Hydroxylase inhibits SARS‐CoV‐2 and other coronaviruses by depleting membrane cholesterol. EMBO J 39: e106057 (2020).

https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2020106057