Prof. Cheng Zhu, PhD: "Outside-in/inside-out loop of the TCR mechanotransduction apparatus"

Tuesday, February 6, 2018, 4.00 pm, Hygiene Institute, Lecture Hall 1, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna IX

COLLOQUIUM IN PATHOPHYSIOLOGY, INFECTIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

» Invitation

Dr. Cheng Zhu is a Regent’s Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics and holds the J. Erskine Love Endowed Chair in Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. As a graduate student at Columbia University and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego he focused on the mathematical modeling of cell locomotion and cell adhesion, respectively. In 1990, after starting his own laboratory at Georgia Tech, he pioneered the two-dimensional (2D) analysis of interactions at the junctional interface between molecules anchored to two opposing surfaces by devising several experimental methods with custom-designed instruments and developing mathematical models. Using the adhesion frequency assay, the force-clamp lifetime assay, the thermal fluctuation assay, and the molecular stiffness assays the Zhu lab has applied these 2D assays to the studies of interactions of the T cell receptors, CD4/8 coreceptors, and co-stimulatory/co-inhibitory receptors with their respective ligands.  

Recent publications

• Seo YJ, Jothikumar P, Suthar MS, Zhu C, Grakoui A (2016) Local Cellular and Cytokine Cues in the Spleen Regulate In Situ T Cell Receptor Affinity, Function, and Fate of CD8+ T Cells. Immunity 45(5):988-998.
• Liu B, Chen W, Evavold BD, Zhu C (2014) Accumulation of dynamic catch bonds between TCR and agonist peptide-MHC triggers T cell signaling. Cell 157:357-368
• Jiang N, Huang J, Edwards LJ, Liu B, Zhang Beal CD, Evavold BD, and Zhu C (2011), Two-stage cooperative T cell receptor-peptide major histocompatibility complex-CD8 trimolecular interactions amplify antigen discrimination, Immunity 34:13-23.
• Huang J, Zarnitsyna VI, Liu B, Edwards LJ, Jiang N, Evavold BD, and Zhu C, (2010) The kinetics of two- dimensional TCR and pMHC interactions determine T-cell responsiveness, Nature 464:932-936.

Host: Johannes Huppa