Zhang Laboratory

Structural Biology, Immunology and Pathogen-Host Interactions

The Zhang Lab uses cryo-EM and biochemistry to study how the immune system responds to various disease conditions, including pathogen infection, cancer and metabolic disorders.

The immune system exists in a delicate equilibrium. It must protect the body by identifying, combating and clearing pathogens, cancer cells and dead cells. At the same time, it must carefully orchestrate its individual components to guard against overactivity and prevent damage to healthy tissues. Failures in immune processes can result in inflammatory conditions and autoimmune disorders. Likewise, infections and diseases such as cancer evoke significant immune responses, which can dysregulate the system’s careful balance and result in chronic, damaging inflammation.

One of our interests is to understand inflammasome pathways, from inflammasome activation to pyroptotic cell death, with the goal of translating our findings into novel drugs for infections, chronic inflammation and cancer. Using cutting-edge structural biology techniques, our earlier work elucidated key facets of the NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome, which comprises multiprotein complexes that trigger inflammatory responses during an immune reaction. The lab’s research in this area is ongoing. We utilize cell biology, genetics and bioinformatics — in combination with structural biology — to systematically study the mechanisms of inflammasomal proteins and their functions in the innate immune system.