News
New Member
June 29, 2026
We are excited to welcome Tony to our lab as an ASM STEM Lab intern for the summer! He is a rising freshman at the University of Michigan. Welcome, Tony!
Leah Selected as T32 Trainee!
June 26, 2026
Leah has been selected for support by the Molecular and Cellular Biology Training Grant! Congratulations Leah!
New Member
June 15, 2026
We are excited to welcome Leah to the lab! She will be co-mentored by Prof. Mohammed Kaplan. Welcome, Leah!
Goodbye Sophie!
June 5, 2026
Sophie has completed her study in the lab and is now pursuing her PhD at Stanford University. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors and will miss her!
R35 Award
June 1, 2026
Our R35 MIRA renewal has been awarded by NIGMS! This award will provide stable funding for the next 5 years to support our research on post-translational and post-transcriptional modifications. We are very grateful to NIGMS for their support!
Goodbye Bixia!
November 21, 2025
Bixia has completed her postdoctoral training in the lab and is now a faculty member at Ocean University of China. We will miss her!
Goodbye Stephen!
August 1, 2025
Stephen has completed his study in the lab and is now pursuing his master on data science at UChicago. We will miss him!
First paper on vault!
July 21, 2025
Our paper Structural insights into the roles of PARP4 and NAD+ binding in the human vault cage is online. In this study, we determined cryo-EM structures of the human vault cage bound to PARP4, one of the two minor vault components, and revealed how PARP4 is specifically incorporated into the interior of the vault through its MINT domain. The work defines a near-atomic MVP–PARP4 binding interface driven by electrostatic interactions, and mutational analysis confirmed that key residues on both PARP4 and MVP are required for stable complex formation. Unexpectedly, we also found that NAD⁺ and related nucleotides bind directly to sites inside the vault cage. This suggests that the vault may not simply be a passive container, but could help position or store nucleotide substrates near PARP4 or other vault-associated enzymes. Proteomics further showed that vaults purified from wild-type and PARP4-depleted cells associate with distinct sets of proteins, supporting a model in which PARP4 helps shape vault cargo selection and subcellular localization. We are very pround of these structures and findings!
Goodbye Jane!
November 30, 2024
Jane has completed her study in the lab and is now pursuing her postdoctoral studies at MIT. We will miss her!
New Member
September 30, 2024
We are excited to welcome Simone to our lab! She will be co-mentored by Prof. Tobin Sosnick. Welcome, Simone!
New Member
June 30, 2024
We are excited to welcome Madeline to our lab! She will be co-mentored by Prof. David Pincus. Welcome, Madeline!
Remembering Bowei
March 8, 2024
Today marks the anniversary of Dr. Bowei Yang’s sudden passing. Bowei was a brilliant scientist and a wonderful colleague. During his time with us, he contributed to two publications from the lab (1, 2). We will always remember his kindness, generosity, and dedication to science.
New Member
June 30, 2023
We are excited to welcome Erick to our lab! He will be co-mentored by Prof. Ben Glick. Welcome, Erick!
Bowei's Passing
March 9, 2023
We are deeply saddened to share that Dr. Bowei Yang has passed away. We will miss him greatly.
Goodbye Chang!
August 31, 2022
Chang has completed her graduate study in the lab and is now a scientist at Biogen. We will miss her!
New Member
May 1, 2022
We are excited to welcome Dr. Bowei Yang to our lab as a new postdoctoral researcher! Welcome, Bowei!
Goodbye Man and Yuanyuan!
November 30, 2021
Man and Yuanyuan have completed their productive postdoctoral training in the lab and are now faculty members at SJTU and Shanghai University in China. We will miss them!
Nature Paper Online!
November 17, 2021
Our paper Structural insights into Ubr1 mediated N-dengron polyubiquitination is online. In this study, we used chemical biology methods to capture multiple intermediate states and determined the complex structures of yeast Ubr1, Ubc2, ubiquitin, and N-degron. This is the first time that the full-length structure of Ubr1, a single-subunit E3 ligase of ~2000 residues, is determined. Our structures revealed how Ubr1 initiates the ubiquitination reaction on the N-degron peptide and elongate the ubiquitin chain in a linkage specific manner. They showed that E3s can also contribute to the linkage specificity of ubiqutin chains, and provided a mechanistic understanding of Ubr1 mediated polyubiquitination. Historically, Ubr1 was the first genetically cloned E3 ligase (Bartel, et al., 1990). It is invovled in the N-degron pathway. We are very pround of our structures and findings!
Also check out the highlights at UChicago BSD Research News and Chinese media. Thank all the wonderful collaborators at the Liu Lab in Tsinghua University and congratulations to Man Pan, Qingyun Zheng, Tian Wang, and Lujun Liang!
Nature Paper Accepted!
October 6, 2021
Our paper Structural insights into Ubr1 mediated N-dengron polyubiquitination was just accepted for publication in Nature! Congratulations to Man, Qingyun, Tian and Lujun! More details to follow soon.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Paper Online!
July 15, 2021
Our paper Mechanistic insight into substrate processing and allosteric inhibition of human p97 is online. In this study, we determined a series of high-resolution cryo-EM structures of p97 in substrate-engaged states and inhibitor(NMS-873)-bound states. They reveal critical conformaitonal changes of the intersubunit signaling (ISS) motifs, which contribute to the sprial staircase conformation of the translocating p97 and the allosteric inhibition of NMS-873. This is the first time human p97 is observed in asymmetric working states. We are very pround of our structures and findings!
Also check out the featured News & Views written by Edward Twomey on nature structural & molecular biology. Thank all the wonderful collaborators and congratulations to Man Pan!
Nature Chemical Biology Paper Online!
July 9, 2021
Our paper K29-linked ubiquitin signaling regulates proteotoxic stress response and cell cycle is online. This is a collaboration work with Tony Kossiakoff lab at UChicago, Lei Liu lab at THU, and Jingyi Fei lab at UChicago. A synthetic antigen binding reagent (sAB) that specifically recognizes K29-linked ubiquitin was developed and characterized. K29-linked polyubiquitin is quite abundant in vivo but the function of this particular linkage remains to be elucidated. Using the sAB as a tool, we discovered that this type of ubiquitin chain is involved in proteotoxic stress response and cell cycle regulation. Further investigations are required to decypher this intriguing ubiquitin code.
Also check out the News & Views on nature chemical biology. Again, thank all the wonderful collaborators and congratulations to Yuanyuan, Qingyun, and Satchal!
New Member
July 5, 2021
Vivian Lu, a rising senior undergraduate, joined our lab! Welcome Vivian!
Nature Structural and Molecular Biology Paper Accepted!
June 6, 2021
Our paper Mechanistic insight into substrate processing and allosteric inhibition of human p97 was just accepted! Congratulations to Man and Yuanyuan! Another great piece of work! More details to follow soon.
New Member
April 12, 2021
Ally Cao, a first-year undergraduate, joined our lab! Welcome Ally!
Nature Chemical Biology Paper Accepted!
April 2, 2021
Our paper K29-linked ubiquitin signaling regulates stress response and cell cycle was just accepted! Congratulations to Yuanyuan, Qingyun, and Satchal! More details to follow soon.
Nature Communications Paper Online!
January 5, 2021
Our paper Seesaw conformations of Npl4 in the human p97 complex and the inhibitory mechanism of a disulfiram derivative is online. Many thanks to our wonderful collaborators, especially Drs. Qingyun Zheng and Lei Liu at Tsinghua University. Congratulations to Man Pan!
Krios Online!
October 1, 2020
Our Krios is online! Thanks to everyone who had put tremendous efforts to make it happen. Learn more about the Advanced Electron Microscopy Facility at UChicago here.
CBC Catalyst Award
January 10, 2018
We got CBC Catalyst Award with Xiaojing Yang at UIC to study protein allostery and dynamics. Cheers!
Nobel Prize!
October 4, 2017
Let’s not forget the other pioneers and scientists who also made great contributions to the field. Without them we wouldn’t be here.
New Members
September 18, 2017
Jane Lodwick, BMB graduate student, and Man Pan, PhD from Tsinghua University, joined our lab!
Welcome Jane and Man!
Nature Cover!
August 24, 2017
Qiangjun (John) Zhou, my previous labmate in the Brunger Lab, published a Nature cover article. Really beautiful crystal structures!
Congratulations, John and Axel!
New Member
July 5, 2017
Caitlin Wong, Biological Chemistry major, joined our lab as the first undergraduate student! Welcome Caitlin!
The first high-resolution reconstruction from our Talos!
May 4, 2017
The raw stacks were over-exposed (>100 electrons per square angstrom), but after dose weighting using MotionCor2 and straightforward processing using RELION, a beautiful map of 20S proteasome emerged, with bulky side chains clearly resolved! The pdb model used here is 3j9i. It is docked with rigid body fitting in Chimera.
This is the first time that a sub 4 angstrom map is generated from our Talos F200C. Data was collected by Chang and Tian (Perozo Lab) manually using SerialEM. Thank Zanlin Yu at Yifan Cheng lab for providing the 20S proteasome.
The Third Coast Workshop on Biological Cryo-EM
March 3, 2017
Minglei gave a talk on “atomic model building and refinement in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy”.
Structure Club
February 21, 2017
Minglei gave a talk on “single-particle cryo-EM – personal experience and most recent advances”.
Biophysical Society 61st Annual Meeting
February 12, 2017
Minglei gave a platform talk on “mechanistic insights into NSF mediated SNARE complex disassembly”.
The Beginning
February 9, 2017
This marks the born of our lab website!
New Member
February 8, 2017
Chang Liu from Department of Chemistry joined our lab as the first graduate student! Welcome Chang!