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2018-03-06 March
Hybrid is better!
Our work on hybrid voltage indicator is officially accepted in Angewandte Chemie International Edition! By site-specifically modifying microbial rhodopsin on live cell surface with organic fluorophores, we created a palette of hybrid indicators with combined merits of small molecules (bright, photostable and small in size) and proteins (genetically targetable). The best of this series, called Flare1, has submillisecond response speed and superior sensitivity than the previous generation of fluorescent protein-based sensors. It allowed us to investigate the spatial and temporal correlation of electrical coupling among mammalian cells. Future developments are underway to achieve voltage imaging in neurons or in vivo. To read more about the design and deployment of hybrid indicators to neuroscience research, please refer to our recent review in ACS Chemical Neuroscience . -
2018-01-01 January
New Year and New Students!
As 2018 approaches, we are delighted to welcome three CCME graduate students to join our group: Yuxin Fang, Shuzhang Liu, and Ruixuan Wang. Yuxin (B.S. in Chemistry from Nankai University) did her undergraduate thesis research in our group earlier this year and has since decided to stay. Shuzhang and Ruixuan graduated from USTC and PKU, respectively. At our New Year party this week, we exchanged gifts and shared our memorable moments in 2017. We also announced our annual "Lab Star" awards: Luxin, Pengchong, Ying, Zefan, and Wei. Congratulations and thank you all for your hard work! We are all looking forward to a productive and happy New Year!
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2017-06-26 June
Congratulations to Our Undergraduates！
Congratulations to Yu Wang and three Yuxin's (~ Fang, ~ Mi, ~ Duan) for successfully defending their theses and getting Bachelor's degrees! After the summer, they will all move on to the next stage of their academic careers. Yu Wang will join The Scripps Research Institute for her PhD study. Yuxin Fang will be enrolled in the PhD program at CCME, PKU. Both Yuxin Mi and Yuxin Duan will move to the UK to study at the University of Oxford.
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2017-05-02 May
State-of-the-Art in Voltage Imaging
The past decade has seen a proliferation of fluorescent voltage indicators. Given the multiple choices, each with different tradeoffs between response speed and sensitivity, brightness and spectral range, one might ask: which sensor is better? In a recent review published by our group and Prof. Adam Cohen at Harvard University, we outlined the history of these voltage indicators, highlighting those with promising characteristics for in vivo imaging. We also discussed protein engineering strategies that gave rise to these sensors, and hoped that this article will inspire novel ideas for better probes. Read about it in Current Opinion in Chemical Biology
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2017-03-05 March
Welcome to Ruirui and Yuxin!
We are delighted to have Ruirui Ma and Yuxin Fang joining our group. Ruirui is a first year CCME graduate student with prior research interest in inorganic and physical chemistry. We are excited to integrate that background into our research focus. Yuxin is currently a senior undergraduate student from College of Chemistry at Nankai University, and will be entering CCME in the coming fall term. Welcome to both of you!!
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2017-01-03 January
New Students
As we enter the New Year, we are delighted to have four more students joining the group! Feng Yuan (B.S. in Biology), Anqi Wang (B.S. in Chemistry), and Tieqiang Yue (B.S. in Chemistry) all graduated from Cuiying Honors program at Lanzhou University. Luxin Peng majored in physical chemistry as an undergraduate at Nanjing University. This timely reinforcement will enable us to explore new research directions in the new year. Welcome to all four of you!
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2016-12-27 December
New Year Party and Lab Stars
In addition to the gift swap game as a tradition, this year's party also included a one-slide flash talk, where each one of us reflected upon our joy and happiness and achievements in the past year. Old is gone and New is here. We are looking forward to a prosperous and productive 2017! As a new tradition, we have established our annual "Lab Star" award, which will be determined at the end of each year by anonymous votes from a majority of lab members. This year, our first award goes to Sicong Wang, Ying Zhou, and Yongxian Xu, to recognize their strong work ethic and outstanding contributions to the lab.
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2016-07-18 July
New Recruits and Summer Interns
Several students joined our group in the past couple of months. Wei Tang obtained her B.S. degree from Sun Yat-sen University and was enrolled in the CLS program at PKU in 2015. She started rotation in our lab this April and has decided to stay since. Sicong Wang joined us as a Research Assistant last month. He recently graduated from Beihang University (BUAA) with a Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering. We are also pleased to have Renjie Shang (Ocean University of China) and Yongpeng Jiang (Wuhan University) join us as summer intern students. Welcome to all of you!
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2016-07-06 July
Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Congratulations to Chenxi Sun (Yuanpei College, '18) and Shasha Feng (College of Life Sciences, '18) for being selected for Beijing Innovation Program for Undergraduate Research! Both awardees will receive research fund to support lab work. We are very proud of you!
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2016-05-31 May
Two PhD Candidates
Congratulations to Yongxian and Pengchong for passing the PhD qualifying exam at Center for Life Sciences! We look forward to seeing more of your accomplishments in the years to come.
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2016-05-26 May
Successful Thesis Defense
Congratulations to Jiahe for defending her undergraduate research thesis! Jiahe was the first undergrad to join our lab last summer, and has been working on developing the next generation voltage sensor for her thesis. Jiahe will move to UK this summer. She is the recipient of a graduate fellowship from China Scholarship Council, which will sponsor her PhD study at Oxford University for the next four years. Congratulations again!
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2016-05-23 May
CNHUPO Young Investigator
Peng Zou is honored to receive the Young Investigator Award at the 9th CNHUPO (Chinese Human Proteome) Annual Congress (2016.5.21-23, Xiamen).
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2016-01-09 January
Talent Award
Peng Zou has received Thousand Young Talents Award from Chinese Government. This will encourage and support future research efforts in our lab.
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2015-11-11 November
More Rotation Students
Our lab size is temporarily doubled with the arrival of five rotation students! ZENG Jianzhi, ZI Zhentao and HU Shumei are from CLS program. CHENG Hang and QI Chen are from PTN program. They will start exploring new project ideas in the coming two months. Welcome!
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2015-09-20 September
Rotation Students
Welcome to ZHOU Ying and DING Tao, two CCME first-year grad students to start rotation in our lab. ZHOU Ying obtained her Bachelor of Engineering degree from Soochow University. DING Tao graduated from CCME at Peking University.
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2015-09-01 September
Undergrad for the New Semester
As the new semester starts, YANG Jiahe, a senior undergrad from School of Life Sciences, joins us to work on voltage sensor engineering for her thesis. Welcome on board!
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2015-08-04 Aguest
A Brand New Lab
Lab renovation is completed. Our space is divided into four areas: Optics room, Tissue culture room, Wet lab, and Student office. The first two areas are built within a clean room.
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2015-07-11 July
Lab Assistants
WEI Tongyao joins our lab as research assistant. He recently graduated from School of Life Sciences at Lanzhou University. ZHANG Jing joins us as administrative assistant. Welcome to both!
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2015-06-15 June
We are Growing
Welcome to the first two Zou lab members: XU Yongxian and WANG Pengchong! Both are enrolled in the CLS program. Yongxian obtained his MS degree from Zhejiang University. Pengchong graduated from Shandong University.
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2015-05-13 May
A New Chapter
Peng Zou is appointed as the Assistant Professor in College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University. He is also affiliated with PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, and PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, as a Principal Investigator.
