Education
2010.09-2016.07, Ph.D., School of Life Sciences, Peking University
2006.09-2010.07, B.S., School of Life Sciences, Peking University
Professional Experience
2022.06-present, Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China；
2022.06-present, Investigator, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China；
2021.10-2022.04，Postdoc research fellow, Massachusetts General hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA；
2016.09-2021.09, Postdoc fellow, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Research Interests
Our lab is mostly interested in the dynamics, contact and functions of membrane organelles, like the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. The ER is the biggest organelle in a cell with highly complex and dynamic morphology. The ER plays key roles in many important cell functions, and abnormality in ER shape or functions is closely related to neurodegeneration diseases and cancer. The ER forms contacts with virtually all other organelles, which are believed to be important for many cell functions, yet our understanding of the molecular mechanism and functions of organelle contacts and their contribution to human diseases is still very limited. Our recent work has shown how ER proteins decipher the “tubulin code” to determine broad organelle distribution, and how the tubular ER specifically response to DNA damage and promotes cell death via ER-mitochondria contacts. We will continue to study dynamic regulation of the ER and other membrane organelles, trying to unravel how abnormality in their morphology and function leads to disease development. Our major directions are:
1, Regulation of the dynamics and interaction of membrane-bound organelles,especilly the ER;
2, Molecular mechanisms of how abnormality in organelle shape or distribution cause human diseases.
Representative Peer-Reviewed Publications
1. Pengli Zheng#, Christopher Obara, Ewa Szczesna, Jonathon Nixon-Abell, Kishore Mahalingan, Antonina Roll-Mecak, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Craig Blackstone#. Endoplasmic Reticulum Proteins Decipher the Tubulin Code to Regulate Organelle Distribution. Nature. 2022, 601: 132-138. (#Corresponding author)
2. Birong Shen*, Pengli Zheng*, Nannan Qian*, Qingzhou Chen*, Xin Zhou, Junjie Hu, Jianguo Chen#, Junlin Teng#. Calumenin-1 Interacts with Climp63 to Cooperatively Determine the Luminal Width and Distribution of Endoplasmic Reticulum Sheets. iScience. 2019, 22: 70-80. (*Co-first author)
3. Pengli Zheng*, Qingzhou Chen*, Xiaoyu Tian*, Nannan Qian, Peiyuan Chai, Bin Liu, Junjie Hu, Craig Blackstone, Desheng Zhu, Junlin Teng#, Jianguo Chen#. DNA damage triggers tubular endoplasmic reticulum extension to promote apoptosis by facilitating ER-mitochondria signaling. Cell Research. 2018, 28: 833-854.
4. Pengli Zheng, Qiao Wang, Junlin Teng, Jianguo Chen#. Calumenin and fibulin-1 on tumor metastasis: Implications for pharmacology. Pharmacological Research. 2015, 99: 11-15.
5. Qiao Wang*, Birong Shen*, Liang Chen*, Pengli Zheng*, Hui Feng, Qingsong Hao, Xiao Liu, Lin Liu, Sizheng Xu, Jianguo Chen#, Junlin Teng#. Extracellular calumenin suppresses ERK1/2 signaling and cell migration by protecting fibulin-1 from MMP-13-mediated proteolysis. Oncogene. 2015, 34: 1006-1018.
6. Qiao Wang*, Birong Shen*, Pengli Zheng*, Hui Feng, Yige Guo, Wenyuan Cao, Liang Chen, Xiao Liu, Guodong Zhao, Sizheng Xu, Weide Shen, Jianguo Chen#, Junlin Teng#. BmCREC is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident protein and required for ER/Golgi morphology. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2013, 288: 26649-26657.
Laboratory Introduction
