The Laboratory of Biochemistry & Structural Biology of the University of Science and Technology of China was established in 2004. It consists of two independent research groups which are supervised by Professor ZHOU Cong-Zhao and Professor CHEN Yuxing. It is affiliated to the School of Life Sciences. The current laboratory members include Associate Professor JIANG Yong-Liang, Associate Professor LI Wei-Fang, Associate Investigator HOU Wen-Tao, Associate Investigator LI Qiong, Laboratory Manager REN Yan-Min, several postdoctoral fellows, approximately 15 Ph.D students, more than 10 postgraduates and several undergraduates.

The three major scientific issues that we currently focus on are: 1) the molecular mechanism of cyanobacterial bloom and potential regulation strategies, 2) the pathogenesis of pathogens, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, and 3) the transport mechanism of ABC transporters. The theoretical systems and methodologies of the laboratory include (but not limited to) biochemistry, molecular biology, structural biology, microbiology, biophysics and cell biology.

The main funding supports come from the Ministry of Science and Technology (973 Program and the National Key Basic Research Program of China), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Key Program, General Program and Young Scientists Fund) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (The Strategic Priority Research Program and the Innovation Center for Seeds). Our technology platform includes: protein purification, analysis and crystallization systems; microbial genetic operating systems; cell culture and analytical sorting systems; and enzymology research systems. In addition, we also share the large instrumentation platforms of the School of Life Sciences and Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale.

The fruits of our research have been published in scientific journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, EMBO Reports, PLoS Pathogens, NAR, and JBC (see the PUBLICATIONS section for more details).

We warmly welcome excellent undergraduates and doctoral graduates to join us! We are open to collaborate with any groups all over the world.

• Dr. ZHOU Cong-Zhao 

  Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences

  Dean, Undergraduate Education Office, University of Science and Technology of China

  Tel: 0086-551-63602262; 63600406

  Email: zcz@ustc.edu.cn         

• Dr. CHEN Yuxing 

  Professor of Structural Biology

  School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China
  Tel: 0086-551-63602492
  Email: cyxing@ustc.edu.cn