Education
Postdoctoral Training Pharmacology, The Johns Hopkins University 2006
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Miami, Florida 2002
M.S. Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China 1998
B.S. Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China 1995
Areas of Expertise
Research Areas: Epigenetic therapies and chemical biology strategies and probes to interrogate protein acetylation- and methylation
regulated disease processes
Opportunities for Collaboration: With those who have specialized expertise in pharmacology, such as MS and proteomics
Honors, Awards, and Achievements
Organizer of Southeastern Chemical Biology Symposium, April 2017
Leading Organizer, Pacifichem – Symposium on Epigenetic and Chromatin Biochemistry, December 2015
Organizer of NSF CWCS Workshop on Nucleic Acids, May 2012
Georgia State University Faculty Award for Undergraduate Research, 2010
Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar, 2007
William M. Keck Foundation Fellowship, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2004—2006
Affiliations
- BioMed Research International, Editorial Board Member
- Journal of Physiochemical Metabolism, Editorial Board Member
- Current Enzyme Inhibition, Editorial Board Member
- American Heart Association for the Advancement of Science, Member
- American Heart Association, Member
- American Chemical Society, Member
Research Interests
Drug Development, Chemical Biology, Cancer Disease Mechanism, Cardiovascular Disorders, Epigenetics and Genetics, Histone Modifications, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Enzymology, Biophysics, and Bioinformatics.
Dr. Zheng’s research laboratory works on the forefront area of chemistry, biology and medicine. We are particularly interested in addressing critical problems and challenges in the rapidly evolving field of epigenetics that describes gene expression profile changes that are irrelevant to genomic sequence. Mounting data show that epigenetic processes play pivotal roles in transforming normal cells into malignant tumors and in various other human pathologic conditions. Abnormality in epigenetic landscape presents characteristic biomarkers for disease diagnosis. The importance of epigenetic regulation in disease initiation and evolvement signifies a new flow of challenges and opportunities to disease research and pharmaceutical discovery. Therefore, identifying key chromatin regulatory factors such as histone modifying enzymes and chromatin remodeling complexes, understanding their activity, specificity and functional roles, and inventing novel therapeutic strategies embody demanding needs in today’s biology and pharmaceutical research. Our lab is innovating and applying advanced chemical and biological strategies, tools and probes to elucidate functions of epigenetic enzymes in cancer and cardiovascular disease initiation and progression, and meanwhile provide new diagnostic and therapeutic regimens. The lab adopts an interdisciplinary approach, spanning and integrating chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, enzymology, cellular biology, biophysics and bioinformatics, and a wide range of techniques are employed.
Current active research areas include: (1) Understanding of epigenetic misregulation in carcinoma, (2) Understanding of the role of arginine methylation in cardiovascular diseases, (3) development of novel therapies, strategies, and probes to interrogate epigenetically dysregulated disease pathways.
