Jason Zhang, PhD

Jason Zhang is an Assistant Professor at UCLA Bioengineering with expertise in designing and applying de novo protein tools to understand and manipulate cancer signaling. He received his PhD in Bioengineering at UCSD in Jin Zhang’s lab where he built genetically encodable biosensors to reveal mechanisms by which signaling molecules are normally organized and disrupted in a rare liver cancer. As a postdoc in David Baker’s lab at the University of Washington, he designs de novo proteins through AI. The molecular tools he builds (biosensors, selective binders, and protein-based modulators) reveal and reprogram oncogenic signaling.

Zhang J.Z.#, Nguyen W.H., Greenwood N., Ong S.E., Maly D.J.#, Baker D.# Computationally designed sensors detect endogenous Ras activity and signaling effectors at subcellular resolution. (2024) Nature Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-02107-w

Zhang J.Z.#, Ong S.E., Baker D., Maly D.J.# (2024) Single-cell sensor analyses reveal signaling programs enabling Ras-G12C drug resistance. Nature Chemical Biology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-024-01684

Zhang J.Z.#, Li X., Liu C.X., Jiang H.L., Wu K.#, Baker D#. De novo design of Ras isoform selective binders. Biorxiv https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.610300v2