Research Areas:

Maintaining metabolic homeostasis is a fundamental necessity for all living organisms. In humans, slight deviations in metabolic pathways can be disastrous resulting in major human pathologies, like aging, neurodegeneration, diabetes and cancer.In our lab, we combine a number of cutting-edge techniques – from CRISPR-Cas9 screening, base editing screening, metabolomics to quantitative chemical proteomics– to elucidate how cellular metabolism contributes to human disorders such as cancer and aging related diseases. Our long-term research goal is to druggable and metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer and aging related diseases.
Research projects:
1. Compartmentalized redox sensing and regulation.
2. Proteogenomic identification of metabolite sensing mechanism.
3. Cysteine proteomics (isoTOP-ABPP)-based drug discovery.

Brief Biography:

2025.02 - : Professor, Principal Investigator, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, CAS, Shanghai, China

2024.05 - 2025.01: Instructor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

2019.06 - 2024.04: Postdoc Fellow, Mass General Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

2013.09 - 2019.05: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China

2010.09 - 2013.06: M.S. Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

2006.09 - 2010.06: B.S. Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

Selected Publications: (*Corresponding Author)

1. Junbing Zhang*, Liron Bar-Peled*. Chemical Biology Approaches to Uncovering Nuclear ROS Control. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 2023 Jun 21;76:102352.
2. Junbing Zhang*, Claire M. Simpson, Jacqueline Berner, Harrison B. Chong, Jiafeng Fang, Zehra Ordulu, Tommy Weiss-Sadan, Anthony P. Possemato, Stefan Harry, Mariko Takahashi, Tzu-yi Yang, Marianne Richter, Himani Patel, Abby E. Smith, Alexander D. Carlin, Adriaan F. Hubertus de Groot, Konstantin Wolf, Lei Shi, Ting-Yu Wei, Benedikt R. Dürr, Nicholas J. Chen, Tristan Vornbäumen, Nina O. Wichmann, Mohammed S. Mahamdeh, Venkatesh Pooladanda, Yusuke Matoba, Shaan Kumar, Eugene Kim, Sara Bouberhan, Esther Oliva, Bo R. Rueda, Roy J. Soberman, Nabeel Bardeesy, Brian B. Liau, Michael Lawrence, Matt P. Stokes, Sean A. Beausoleil, Liron Bar-Peled*. Systematic identification of anticancer drug targets reveals a nucleus-to-mitochondria ROS-sensing pathway. Cell 2023;186(11):2361-2379.
   ● Highlight. A ROS-mediated resistance pathway to anticancer drugs. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 22, 534 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-023-00094-w.
   ● Highlight. How CHKing ROS signaling preserves genomic integrity. Cell Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-023-00840-0.
   ● Highlight. Cys-regulation: oxidized CHK1 controls cross-compartment circuit of chemoresistance. Trends in Cancer 2023, Pages 700-702. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405803323001322.
   ● Research watch. DNA Damage Response and Mitochondrial Translation Mediate ROS Response. Cancer discovery 2023, p.OF1-OF1. https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CDRW2023-085.
3. Junbing Zhang, Jinchao Liu, Anne Norris, Barth D Grant, Xiaochen Wang, Wang X. A novel requirement for ubiquitin conjugating enzyme UBC-13 in retrograde recycling of MIG-14/Wntless and Wnt signaling. Mol Biol Cell 2018;29(17):2098-2112.
4. Guijun Shang#, Deyu Zhu#, Ning Li#, Junbing Zhang#, Chunyuan Zhu, Defen Lu, Cuilan Liu, Qian Yu, Yanyu Zhao, Sujuan Xu, Lichuan Gu. Crystal structures of STING protein reveal basis for recognition of cyclic di-GMP. Nat Struct Mol Biol 2012 Jun 24;19(7):725-727.
5. Junbing Zhang, Liron Bar-Peled. How Sweet It Is: Small-Molecule Inhibitors of mTORC1 Glucose Sensing. Cell Chemical Biology 2019;26(9):1195-1196.
6. Letao Li, Xilu Liu, Shanshan Yang, Meijiao Li, Yanwei Wu, Siqi Hu, Wenjuan Wang, Amin Jiang, Qianqian Zhang, Junbing Zhang, Xiaoli Ma, Junyan Hu, Qiaohong Zhao, Yubing Liu, Dong Li, Junjie Hu, Chonglin Yang, Wei Feng, Xiaochen Wang. The HEAT repeat protein HPO-27 is a lysosome fission factor. Nature 2024 Apr;628(8008):630-638.
7. Rui Miao, Cong Jiang, Winston Y Chang, Haiwei Zhang, Jinsu An, Felicia Ho, Pengcheng Chen, Han Zhang, Caroline Junqueira, Dulguun Amgalan, Felix G Liang, Junbing Zhang, Charles L Evavold, Iva Hafner-Bratkovič, Zhibin Zhang, Pietro Fontana, Shiyu Xia, Markus Waldeck Weiermair, Youdong Pan, Thomas Michel, Liron Bar-Peled, Hao Wu, Jonathan C Kagan, Richard N Kitsis, Peng Zhang, Xing Liu, Judy Lieberman. Gasdermin D permeabilization of mitochondrial inner and outer membranes accelerates and enhances pyroptosis. Immunity 2023 Nov 14;56(11):2523-2541.
8. Tommy Weiss-Sadan, Maolin Ge, Makiko Hayashi, Magdy Gohar, Cong-Hui Yao, Adriaan de Groot, Stefan Harry, Alexander Carlin, Hannah Fischer, Lei Shi, Ting-Yu Wei, Charles H Adelmann, Konstantin Wolf, Tristan Vornbäumen, Benedikt R Dürr, Mariko Takahashi, Marianne Richter, Junbing Zhang, Tzu-Yi Yang, Vindhya Vijay, David E Fisher, Aaron N Hata, Marcia C Haigis, Raul Mostoslavsky, Nabeel Bardeesy, Thales Papagiannakopoulos, Liron Bar-Peled. NRF2 activation induces NADH-reductive stress, providing a metabolic vulnerability in lung cancer. Cell Metab 2023 Apr 4;35(4):722.
9. Noritaka Tanaka, Jessica J Lin, Chendi Li, Meagan B Ryan, Junbing Zhang, Lesli A Kiedrowski, Alexa G Michel, Mohammed U Syed, Katerina A Fella, Mustafa Sakhi, Islam Baiev, Dejan Juric, Justin F Gainor, Samuel J Klempner, Jochen K Lennerz, Giulia Siravegna, Liron Bar-Peled, Aaron N Hata, Rebecca S Heist, Ryan B Corcoran. Clinical Acquired Resistance to KRASG12C Inhibition through a Novel KRAS Switch-II Pocket Mutation and Polyclonal Alterations Converging on RAS-MAPK Reactivation. Cancer Discov 2021;11(8):1913-1922.
10. Guijun Shang, Xiuhua Liu, Defen Lu, Junbing Zhang, Ning Li, Chunyuan Zhu, Shiheng Liu, Qian Yu, Yanyu Zhao, Heqiao Zhang, Junqiang Hu, Huaixing Cang, Sujuan Xu, Lichuan Gu. Structural insight into how Pseudomonas aeruginosa peptidoglycanhydrolase Tse1 and its immunity protein Tsi1 function. Biochem J 2012 Dec 1;448(2):201-211.
11. Duohong Sheng, Jiandong Jao, Mingfeng Li, Peng Xu, Junbing Zhang. RecX is involved in the switch between DNA damage response and normal metabolism in D. radiodurans. J Biochem 2009 Sep;146(3):337-342.