College of Medicine
Zhao Lab
Led by Chen Zhao · Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
What we study
The lab studies how membrane proteins transmit signals in cells using cryo-EM to determine their structures and electrophysiology, calcium imaging, and fluorescent microscopy to analyze their function. They focus on understanding how these proteins interact and regulate signals at the cell membrane.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Project
- 1
- Papers
- 3
Current projects
Molecular Mechanisms Underlying TRPM3 Regulation in the Cell Membrane
Investigating how TRPM3 proteins regulate signals in the cell membrane.
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Cryo-EM structure of TRPM1 reveals a non-canonical architecture with an inverted transmembrane domain
2026 · Nature Communications
Uses cryo-EM to study a protein linked to night blindness, finding it has a unique structure.
- Spatial Deconstruction of the Plasma Membrane
2026 · Journal of the American Chemical Society
Finds plasma membrane proteins form protein-rich domains separated by protein-poor regions.
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- Structure and activation mechanism of human sweet taste receptor
2025 · Cell Research
Uses cryo-EM to study how the sweet taste receptor works, revealing its structure.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Chen Zhao hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Chen Zhao”).