Biographical Notes

Xiaojun Zhao

Xiaojun Zhao is Professor, Chief Scientist and Executive Director at a newly established Institute for NanoBiomedical Technology and Membrane Biology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. He received his M.A. degree in Biochemistry from University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from Medical School of University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied the structure and functions of DNA recombination. He then worked on mitochondrial disease at California Institute of Technology. He also studied molecular and cellular mechanism of neuronal synaptogenesis and worked on Peptide self-assembling Nanobiomaterials at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently working with various self-assembling peptide systems to develop new classes of biological materials including peptide matrix scaffolds for tissue engineering, biological surface engineering, molecular switches, and peptide surfactant nanotubes for stabilizing membrane proteins and their complexes. He is also trying to gain understanding of a class of protein conformational diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and the prion diseases (mad cow disease).  His lab is also involved in several other studies such as developing scaffolds for controlling stem cells differentiation and proliferation, tumor cells in vitro proliferation and drug therapy, modifying peptide 3-D gel scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Selected publications:

Zhao, X. and Zhang, S. (2004) Building from the bottom up:   
Fabrication of molecular materials using peptide construction motifs. Trends in Biotechnology，22，470-476.
Zhao, X., Shddhartha, J., Larman, B., Gonzales, S. and Irvine, J. D. (2005) Directed migration of monocytes and dendritic cells via chemoattractants released from degradable microspheres. Biomaterials 26, 5048-5063.
Kiley, P., Zhao, X., Baldo, M., Bruce B. and Zhang, S. (2005) Self-assembling peptide surfactants stabilize Spinach Photosystem I on a dry surface for an extended time. PLoS Biology 3, 1180-1186.
Zhao, X., Nagai, Y., Reeves, P.J., Kiley, P., Khorana, H.G. and Zhang, S. (2006) Designer short peptide surfactants stabilize G-protein coupled receptor bovine rhodopsin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103, 17707-17712.
Zhao, X. and Zhang, S. (2006) Molecular designer self-assembling peptides. Chem. Soc. Rev. 35, 1105-1110.