Biography

Dr. Zhenkun Na graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Nankai University in 2009, and a PhD degree from National University of Singapore in 2014. From 2016 to 2023, he engaged in postdoctoral research at Yale University in the United States. In 2023, he joined Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences as Research Scientist.

Research Interests

My research group will investigate three research interests that use chemical biology (especially proximity labeling) to elucidate unannotated membrane protein on immune cells, unannotated receptor-ligand interactions during direct interfaces of immune cells and cancer cells, as well as the interaction between the immune system and microbiota. This will provide insight into the functional human proteome by revealing regulators of essential immune checkpoint processes that were previously completely unknown, as well as characterizing unannotated endogenous protein-protein interactions between direct cell-cell interfaces from immune cells with cancer cells and immune cells with microbiota.

2. Can we decipher the unannotated interactome through the cell-cell interaction by proximity labeling technique?
3. Can we identify the unannotated interaction between the immune system and microbiota by proximity labeling technique?

Selected Publications

1. Dai, X.#; Park, J.#; Du, Y.#; Na, Z.#; Chu, Z.; Liao, C.; Clark, P.; Slavoff, S.A.; Chen, S.* “Massively parallel knock-in engineering of human T cells”. Nat. Biotechnol. 2023, 41, 1239-1255. # Contributed equally to this work.

2. Na, Z.; Dai, X.; Zheng, S.; Bryant, C.; Loh, K. H.; Baserga, S.; Chen, S.; Slavoff, S. A.* “Mapping subcellular localizations of unannotated microproteins with MicroID”, Mol. Cell, 2022, 82, 2900-2911.

3. Na, Z.; Luo, Y.; Cui, D; Khitun, A.; Smelyansky, S.; J. P. Loria; Slavoff, S. A.* “Phosphorylation of the NBDY microprotein promotes dissociation of biomolecular condensation”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143(32), 12675-12687.

4. Na, Z.; Luo, Y.; Khitun, A.; Schofield, J. A.; Smelyansky, S.; Muthukumar, S.; Valkov, E.; Simon, M. D.; Slavoff, S. A.* “The NBDY microprotein determines the specificity of cellular RNA decapping”, Biochemistry, 2020, 59,4131-4132.

5. Luo, Y. #; Na, Z. #; Slavoff, S. A.* “P-bodies: composition, properties and functions”, Biochemistry, 2018, 57(17): 2424-2431. # Contributed equally to this work.

6. Na, Z.; Yeo, S.; Bharath, S. R.; Wang, C.; Song, H.* “Structural Basis for Blocking PD-1 Mediated Immune Response by Therapeutic Antibody Pembrolizumab”, Cell Res., 2017, 27, 147-150.   

7. Na, Z.; Peng, B.; Ng, S.; Pan, S.; Lee, J.; Shen, H.; Yao, S. Q. * “A Small Molecule Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibitor of PARP1 that targets Its BRCT domain ”, Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed., 2015, 54, 2515-2519.

8. Na, Z.; Pan, S.; Uttamchandani, M.; Yao, S. Q.* “Discovery of Cell-Permeable Inhibitors that Target the BRCT domain of BRCA1 Protein by using Small Molecule Microarray”, Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed., 2014, 53, 8421-8426.

(Highlighted by Dr. Russell Johnson et al. in Nat. Chem., 2014, 6, 657.)

9. Na, Z.; Li, L.; Yao, S. Q.* “Microarray-Guided Discovery of Two-Photon(2-P) Small Molecule Probes For Live-Cell Imaging of Cysteinyl Cathepsins Activities”, Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 7304-7306

Contacts

E-mail: nazhenkun@him.cas.cn

Hangzhou Institute of Medicine

Chinese Academy of Science

150 Fucheng Road, Qiantang District

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China 310000