Caltech
Division of Biology and
Biological Engineering
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Zhen Chen

Assistant Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
Zhen_Chen
B.Sc., Peking University, 2009; M.A., Rice University, 2012; Ph.D., Rockefeller University, 2019. Caltech, Visiting Associate, 2023; Assistant Professor, 2023-.
Phone: 626-395-8827
Office: 359 Broad
Mail Code: MC 114-96
Research Website

Research Areas

Biological Engineering;  Cellular and Developmental Biology;  Evolutionary and Organismal Biology;  Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Biophysics; 
Research Summary
We are interested in biophysical principles and molecular mechanisms relevant to cilia biology and diseases. We also have other exciting projects on leveraging cellular cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) and AlphaFold2-assisted modeling to address various biology questions. Our guiding principle is: if you do not know what that protein is or how it functions inside the cell, just look at the thing at high resolutions.
Profile

Our laboratory aims to elucidate: i) the molecular mechanisms of ciliary motions, ii) the assembly process of cilia during cell development, iii) other exciting cell biology problems.

We are developing cellular cryoET workflows to directly image the macromolecules in cells. We also employ other biochemistry, chemical biology, structural biology, and single-cell approaches to understand the protein dynamics during ciliary beatings and how cilia are built step by step. Once we have high-resolution reconstructions of the macromolecules in situ, we are able to identify the proteins by unbiasedly matching the structures to the AlphaFold2 library of the entire proteome. We also built knockout mouse models to study the functions of proteins in vivo.

Publications

Chen, Zhen; Shiozaki, Momoko et al. (2023) De novo protein identification in mammalian sperm using high-resolution in situ cryo-electron tomography. Cell.

Chen, Zhen; Greenan, Garrett A. et al. (2023) In situ cryo-electron tomography reveals the asymmetric architecture of mammalian sperm axonemes. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Zheng, Shawn; Wolff, Georg et al. (2022) AreTomo: An integrated software package for automated marker-free, motion-corrected cryo-electron tomographic alignment and reconstruction. Journal of Structural Biology.

Chen, Zhen; Suzuki, Hiroshi et al. (2018) Structural insights into Mdn1, an essential AAA protein required for ribosome biogenesis. Cell.

Kawashima, Shigehiro A.*; Chen, Zhen* et al. (2016) Potent, reversible and specific chemical inhibitors of eukaryotic ribosome biogenesis. Cell (*equal contributions).

Chen, Zhen; Vohidov, Farrukh et al. (2012) Catalytic protein modification with dirhodium metallopeptides: specificity in designed and natural systems. Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Popp, Brian V.; Chen, Zhen et al. (2012) Sequence-specific inhibition of a designed metallopeptide catalyst. Chemical Communications.

Chen, Zhen; Popp, Brian V. et al. (2011) Site-specific protein modification with a dirhodium metallopeptide catalyst. ACS Chemical Biology.

Chen, Zhen; Wang, Yunshan et al. (2009) Nanofluidic electrokinetics in nanoparticle crystal. Applied Physics Letters.

Chen, Zhen; Zhao, Yu et al. (2009) Microfluidic patterning of nanoparticle monolayer. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics.