First name,Last name,Preferred title,Overview,Position,Department,Individual
Lanying,Zeng,Professor,"Living systems make decisions by integrating information from their environments in order to optimize their own fitness. This decision-making process has many intricacies, with a dual nature characterized by stochasticity and determinism, and considerable effort has been dedicated to characterizing the factors contributing to cell-fate heterogeneity. Our primary goal is to determine how multiple environmental and genetic factors, some deterministic and some stochastic, impact developmental outcomes. We choose to study paradigms of cellular decision-making such as bacteriophage lambda lytic-lysogenic development to simplify the complicated nature of cell-fate selection. By distilling the study of a ubiquitous and vital process into basic questions, we hope to generate new insights into how decision-making affects cellular development and differentiation in higher organisms.
We utilize high-resolution live-cell fluorescence microscopy, single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, quantitative data analysis, and simple mathematical modeling to mechanistically dissect the decision-making processes at single-cell/molecule levels. Our favorite biological models are the lysis-lysogeny systems of bacteria and their viruses, like E. coli being infected by paradigm phages lambda and P1. By revisiting established systems with a new, technologically advanced perspective, we are able to reveal previously hidden complexities to better understand the nature of living cells.",Professor,Biochemistry and Biophysics,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/n1954b72f
Xiuren,Zhang,Professor,"Our laboratory focuses on systemic analysis of biochemical, molecular and biological functions of AGO family proteins (AGOs-mics) in genetically tractable Arabidopsis and economically important crops (i.e. rice). We'd like to identify the small RNAs, mRNA targets and protein components which associate with these AGOs. We will study protein/RNA and protein/protein interactions in these RISC assembly events. Our goal is to understand how these AGOs are functionally specialized or redundant corresponding to endogenous development cues and external environmental stimuli. Particularly, we'd like to learn how plants reprogram their gene expression through the small RNAs and AGOs to construct a new cellular niche in responses to environmental challenges and biotic stresses.
Another aspect of our research involves host/virus interaction. Plants take advantage of RNA silencing pathways to defend themselves from exogenous nucleic acid invaders (i.e. viruses). As an anti-host defense mechanism, viruses encode suppressors that can block RNA silencing responses. We have recently demonstrated that CMV 2b disables AGO1 cleavage activity to inhibit RNA silencing and to counter host defense. We are now extending our study to suppressors of several other viruses and the molecular mechanisms of their suppression.",Associate Professor,Biochemistry and Biophysics,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/n220933ad
Junjie,Zhang,Associate Professor,"The living cell contains a collection of molecular machines to grow and function. These machines include the ribosomes, the chaperons, the proteasomes and other enzymes. Malfunction of these machines, if occurred in human, are related to many diseases. Understanding their three-dimensional (3D) structures is essential to understand how these machines work in the cell and eventually to treat those related diseases.
Here we use an experimental technique called cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to image these cellular machines in their native environment at liquid nitrogen temperatures. We then use image processing and graphics techniques to visualize their 3D structures, answering the questions such as how they assemble and how they interact with each other.
In addition, we develop computational modeling tools to interpret and animate these obtained 3D structures to further describe their movements and dynamics.",Associate Professor,Biochemistry and Biophysics,https://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/n701e163f