Zhizeng Gao

Zhizeng

Michael Smith Postdoctoral Fellow

 

  • 2008-2013 Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry), University of Alberta, Supervisor: Prof. John Vederas
  • 2003-2008 B.Sc. (Chemistry and Chemical engineering), Shandong University

 

Phone:  604-822-8847
Email:  zhizeng(at)chem.ubc.ca

 

RESEARCH INTEREST

Influenza infection contains two important glycol proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Hemagglutinin facilitates the initial attachment of the virus to the cell surface sialic acid to infect cells; while neuraminidase cleaves the sialic acid to release progeny virus to infect new cells. My research in the Withers lab is focused on the development of fluorescent and fluorgenic neuraminidase probes, which are useful for investigation of the presence and role of neuraminidases in biological systems.

 

PUBLICATIONS

  1. Zhizeng Gao,Jingjing Wang, Amy K. Norquay, Kangjian Qiao, Yitang, John C. Vederas. Investigation of fungal iterative polyketide synthase functions using partially assembled intermediates. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013, 135, 1735-1738
  2. Bryan Pyle, Hue Tran, Benjamin Pickel; Tegan Haslam; Zhizeng Gao, Gillian MacNevin, John C. Vederas, Dae-Kyun Ro. Enzymatic synthesis of valerena-4,7(11)-diene by a unique sesquiterpene synthase from the valerian plant (Valeriana officinalis).FEBS Journal, 2012, 279, 3136-3146
  3. Hui Zhou, Zhizeng Gao, Kangjian Qiao, Jingjing Wang, John C. Vederas, Yi Tang.  A fungal ketoreductase domain that displays substrate-dependent stereospecificity. Nature Chemical Biology, 2012, 8, 331-333
  4. Hui Zhou, Kangjian Qiao, Zhizeng Gao, John C. Vederas, Yi Tang.  Insights into radicicol biosynthesis via heterologous synthesis of intermediates and analogs. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2010, 285, 41412-41421.
  5. Hui Zhou, Kangjian Qiao, Zhizeng Gao, Michael J. Meehan, Jesse W.-H. Li, Xiling Zhao, Pieter C. Dorrestein, John C. Vederas, Yi Tang. Enzymatic synthesis of resorcylic acid lactones by cooperation of fungal iterative polyketide synthases involved in hypothemycin biosynthesis. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132, 4530-4531.