Welcome to Shan Group
Our research interfaces between chemistry and biology to understand fundamental cellular processes at the level of chemical and physical principles.
MoreOur attention currently focuses on (1) a pair of GTPases in the signal recognition particle (SRP) and the SRP receptor (SR) that act as molecular switches to control the delivery of newly synthesized proteins to cellular membranes; (2) the molecular mechanism that drives the targeting of tail-anchored proteins by the GET pathway; (3) a novel chaperone found in the chloroplast SRP system that actively disrupts existing protein aggregates; and (4) how nascent proteins are selected into the correct biogenesis pathways.
SRP Pathway
SRP is a universally conserved protein targeting machinery that couples the synthesis of ~30% of cellular proteins to their membrane localization.
DetailsYeast GET Pathway
The Guided Entry of Tail-anchored protein (GET) pathway mediates the delivery of tail-anchored proteins to the ER.
DetailsNovel Membrane Protein Chaperone
The biogenesis of membrane proteins poses enormous challenges to cellular protein homeostasis. Using the Light Harvesting Complex Protein (LHCP) family as model substrates, we discovered a novel chaperone, cpSRP43, that overcomes the aggregation and ensures the targeted delivery of LHCPs.
DetailsCrowding at the Ribosome Exit Site
Accumulating data have showed that the ribosome exit site is a crowded environment where many factors rendezvous, including chaperones, modification enzymes, and protein targeting and translocation machineries.
Details