Affiliation: Dept. of Pharmacology, University of California San Diego, Moores Cancer Center, UCSD, Dept. of Bioengineering, UCSD, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSD, BioPAC. 

Education: 2000 PhD, Chemistry, University of Chicago 

Appointments: 2015–present Professor, UCSD; 2012–2015 Professor, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 2009–2012 Associate Professor, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 2003–2009 Assistant Professor, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

Research Interests: Our ultimate goal is to understand how cells, the basic units of life, sense changing environments and orchestrate specific responses to carry out life processes. Recent years have seen tremendous progress in identifying the molecular components that constitute the structural, biochemical and mechanical networks that control various life processes. Less well developed is our understanding of how these components are precisely regulated to achieve functional specificity within a living cell, which may be simultaneously reacting to multiple inputs from the changing environment. We believe the key lies in the spatiotemporal information encoded in a particular cellular context. 

We are investigating the molecular mechanisms and functional roles of such spatiotemporal regulation by taking a “native biochemistry” approach. This allows us to unravel the chemical mechanisms of life processes in the framework of cellular time and space, where molecular changes can be directly linked to functional effects. Work in the Zhang laboratory combines genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors, superresolution imaging, targeted biochemical perturbations and mathematic modeling to investigate the spatiotemporal regulation of the cAMP/PKA, Ca2+/calcineurin, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, MAPK and AMPK pathways in the context of energy metabolism, axon polarization and genesis, insulin secretion by β cells, as well as tumorigenesis.