PEOPLE: CURRENT LAB MEMBERS

Jingshan Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Harvard University
12 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: (617) 496-5499
Fax: (617) 384-9228
zhang44@fas.harvard.edu

Research Summary

I study biological questions with theoretical/computational tools from physics and chemistry.

My Ph. D. work in Univ. of Minnesota was mainly on the transport property (electric conductivity) of ion channels. As theorists we tried using a simplified model to gain some insights on the problem, and it worked out successfully. This was done with Alex Kamenev, Anatoly Larkin and my advisor Boris Shklovskii. Each of them impressed me in a unique way. We also collaborated with an experimental group to study the properties of ion channels threaded with a single-stranded DNA. This study has implications in developing a rapid gene-sequencing technique, and my papers on this topic were cited in a recent review article.

My research in Shakhnovich group started from protein-protein interactions. The competition between functional (specific) and non-functional (random) bindings is similar to my limited experience in "dating" girls: the question is how to efficiently find a girl of the right type, and avoid wasting all the time trying with the (many) wrong ones. Indeed, proteins are like people in many ways.

Currently I work on a new project of viral population dynamics. I have found some new results (predictions) for the competition/selection of viral strains.

Honors and Awards

2006 Aneesur Rahman Prize, University of Minnesota
2006 Wilfred Wetzel Fellowship, University of Minnesota

My favorite popular scientific book

An old book One Two Three ... Infinity written by Prof. George Gamow. It explains things so clearly that even a reader without advanced background knowledge can follow it--as long as the reader is willing to slow down and think. It demonstrates the real beauty of science.

Publications

1. J. Zhang, E. I. Shakhnovich, Submitted, arXiv:0810.2760
"Slowly replicating lytic viruses: persistence and within-host competition"
2. J. Zhang, S. Maslov, E. I. Shakhnovich, Mol. Syst. Biol. 4, 210 (2008)
"Constraints imposed by non-functional protein-protein interactions on gene expression and proteome size"
3. J. Zhang, E. I. Shakhnovich, Phys. Biol. 5, 036011 (2008)
"Sensitivity dependent model of protein-protein interaction networks"
4. J. Zhang, B. I. Shklovskii, Phys. Rev. E 75, 021906 (2007)
"Effective charge and free energy of DNA inside an ion channel"
selected for Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research, Feb 15, 2007.
5. D. J. Bonthuis, J. Zhang, B. Hornblower, J. Mathe, B. I. Shklovskii, A. Meller,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 128101 (2006)
"Self-energy limited ion transport in sub-nanometer channels"
selected for Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research, Oct 1, 2006.
6. J. Zhang, A. Kamenev, B. I. Shklovskii, Phys. Rev. E 73, 051205 (2006)
"Ion Exchange Phase Transitions in 'Doped' Water-Filled Channels"
selected for Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research, June 1, 2006.
7. A. Kamenev, J. Zhang, A. I. Larkin, B. I. Shklovskii, Physica A 359, 129 (2006)
"Transport in One Dimensional Coulomb Gases: from Ion Channels to Nanopores"
8. J. Zhang, A. Kamenev, B. I. Shklovskii, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 148101 (2005)
"Conductance of Ion Channels and Nanopores with Charged Walls: A Toy Model"
selected for Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research, Oct 1, 2005.
9. J. Zhang, B. I. Shklovskii, Phys. Rev. B 70, 115317 (2004)
"Density of States and Conductivity of Granular Metal or Array of Quantum Dots"
10. J. Zhang, Z. Ma, C. Gao, Chinese Phys. Lett. 18, 1015 (2001)
"Estimation of Local Energy Density in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions"