Research

We mainly focuses on revealing the architecture and understanding the mechanism of  nervous system disease-related membrane proteins.

Recent advances in Cryo Electron Microscopy allow investigating problems that have been difficult/impossible to solve via other structural biology methods. In particular, it has been possible to degerming the structure of non-crystalline membrane protein at true-atomic resolution of better than 2.5 Angstrom, which enables a mechanistic understanding of mechanisms and opens opportunities for rational drug design. Even more exciting, it is now possible to use sub-tomogram averaging from cryo electron tomograms to visualize the in-situ structure of membrane proteins at high resolution directly within membranes, which is critical for maintaining native conformations and functionality.

Biography

2020-present, Principal Investigator, SIAT, CAS.

2016-2020, Associated Professor, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University

2013-2016, PostDoc Researcher, Institute Pasteur

2012-2013, PostDoc Researcher, EMBL

2009-2012, PhD in Cell Biology, School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China

2005-2009, Master student in biophysics, Sun Yat-sen University

2001-2005, Bachelor student, Sun Yat-sen University

Selected publications

1. Liu, Yuntao#; Tao, Changlu#; Zhang, Xiaokang#; Xia, Wenjun; Shi, Dongqing; Qi, Lei; Xu, Cheng;Sun, Rong; Li, Xiaowei; Lau, Pakming; Zhou, Z.Hong*; Bi, Guoqiang*. Mesophasic organization ofGABAA receptors in hippocampal inhibitory synapse. NAT NEUROSCI 2020
2. Jin, Qiuheng#; Zhang, Bo#; Zheng, Xiang; Li, Ninging; Xu, Lizhen; Xie, Ye; Song, Fang; Bhat, Ear;Chen, Yi; Gao, Ning; Guo, Jiaotao*; Zhang, Xiaokang*; Ye, Sheng*. Cryo-EM structures of humanpannexin 1 channel. CELL RES 2020
3. Zhang, Bo#; Jin, Qiuheng#; Xu, Lizhen#; Li, Ninging; Meng, Ying; Chang, Shenghai; Zheng, Xiang;Wang, Jiarui; Chen, Yi; Neculai, Dante; Gao, Ning; Zhang, Xiaokang*; Yang, Fan*; Guo, Jiangtao*; Ye,Sheng*. Cooperative transport mechanism of human monocarboxylate transporter 2. NAT COMMUN 2020
4. Xu, Xiongbiao#; Zhang, Qing; Hong, Jian; Li, Zhenghe; Zhang, Xiaokang*; Zhou, Xueping*. Cryo-EM Structure of a Begomovirus Geminate Particle. INT J MOL SCI 2019
5. Liu, Si#; Xu, Lingyi#; Guan, Fenghui#; Liu, Yuntao; Cui, Yanxiang; Zhang, Qing; Zheng, Xiang; Bi,Guoqiang; Zhou, Z.Hong*, Zhang, Xiaokang*, Ye, Sheng*. Cryo-EM structure of the human alpha5beta3GABAA receptor. CELL RES 2018
6. Zhang, Xiaokang#; Ge, Peng#; Yu, Xuekui; Brannan, Jane; Bi, Guoqiang; Zhang, Qinfen; Schein,Stan; Zhou, Z.Hong*. Cryo-EM structure of the mature dengue virus at 3.5-A resolution. NAT STRUCTMOL BIOL 2013
7. Zhang, Xiaokang#; Zhang, Xing; Zhou, Z.Hong*. Low cost, high performance GPU computingsolution for atomic resolution cryoEM single-particle reconstruction. J STRUCT BIOL 2010