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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸

@jasonzxzhang.bsky.social

1.1K followers 1.7K following 27 posts

Computational designer of molecular tools for intracellular signaling. Assistant Professor at UCLA Bioengineering. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=T_SIIAsAAAAJ&hl=en

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · 9d

Excited to share our latest work in expanding AI-based protein design into targeting PTMs! I’m particularly excited in this work as there is so much we don’t know about PTMs despite their central role in signaling and hopefully we can start to decode their rules and functions.

Magnus Bauer @kinasekid.bsky.social · 9d

Phosphorylation on tyrosines control key pathways in immunity, cancer, and metabolism. For the first time, we can now design proteins that specifically recognize individual phosphotyrosines, even in disordered regions. (1/8)

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you for the kind words! Would love your insights.

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · 9d

Magnus Bauer @kinasekid.bsky.social · 9d

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Sep 1

Incoming from David Baker lab! New faculty at @riceuniversity.bsky.social and @uclaengineering.bsky.social with @linnaan.bsky.social and I, respectively. Last meal before we get “real world” jobs 😭.

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Reposted by Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸

Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · Aug 1

Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism

The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school discriminates in admissions and has failed to protect the civil rights of Jewish students.

www.latimes.com

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 25

Thank you Luis!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 25

Thank you Antje!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 25

Thank you Joachim!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 16

Excited to join you at UCLA!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 16

Thank you Zikang!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 16

Thank you Sam!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 16

My lab is opening in November 2025. If you are interested in working in my lab, please email me at: [email protected]. I am currently recruiting masters, PhD, and postdocs.

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 16

Excited to share that I’ll be joining UCLA Bioengineering as a tenure-track professor! My lab will focus on AI-driven molecular engineering to study cellular signaling. As someone 100% educated in US public schools, I’m proud to continue working in public education and inspiring future scientists!

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 3

Ah, thank you for the clarification!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Jul 3

I’ve been trying to find some reliable news about this. Are there funding cuts to NIH and NSF proposed in the Big Beautiful (really Ugly) Bill? If so, how much are the cuts?

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Apr 28

Was so nice to meet up with @grocklin.bsky.social and talk about science! So much to learn from him. Hopefully we can be neighbors soon!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Feb 7

Excited to share my recent work on designing new Hsp70 activators to regulate condensates, and thus reveal their functions: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @uwproteindesign.bsky.social @cp-cellchembiol.bsky.social

De novo designed Hsp70 activator dissolves intracellular condensates

Protein quality control (PQC) is carried out in part by the chaperone Hsp70 in concert with adapters of the J-domain protein (JDP) family. The JDPs, a…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Dec 22

Very cool work from my undergrad buddy! If you are interested in virology, high throughput techniques, and biochemistry, please take a read!

Arjun Aditham @arjunine.bsky.social · Dec 19

Thank you to @jbloomlab.bsky.social for the opportunity to work on/lead this study. We employ a pseudovirus system that is non-replicative and a safe way to study mutations to rabies G. Jesse already authored a very nice overarching summary, so I’ll zoom in on a couple points.

Bloom lab @jbloomlab.bsky.social · Dec 18

In new study, we measure how all mutations to rabies G affect cell entry & antibody neutralization

Sheds light on constraints on type III fusion proteins, suggests ways to stabilize G vaccine antigens, and quantifies antibody robustness to rabies variation

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Dec 13

If you consider all the institutes and hospitals associated with Harvard and MIT as part of their respective schools (eg Boston Children’s with Harvard, Whitehead with MIT, etc) then I bet this figure goes up to 75% 😮

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 28

Thanks! You are right that FRET FLIM may be more quantitative than FRET ratios. I haven’t tested FRET FLIM yet though due to the lack of microscopes available to me to do FLIM measurements.

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 23

Done!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 20

I made a protein designer starter pack ⚛️👨‍💻👩‍💻! Please feel free to DM me if you want to be added. go.bsky.app/JcMhjLw

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 17

Great! Thanks! Hope to see you at a sensor meeting soon!

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 17

My favorite probe is the one I made: Ras activity sensors! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 17

Can you please add me? My favorite probe is the one I made: Ras activity sensors! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Computationally designed sensors detect endogenous Ras activity and signaling effectors at subcellular resolution - Nature Biotechnology

Computationally designed sensors map the activity and signaling environment of Ras.

www.nature.com

Jason Zhang 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸 @jasonzxzhang.bsky.social · Nov 17

We love signaling!

Krishna Mudumbi @krishnamudumbi.bsky.social · Nov 16

I made a starter pack for people interested in signal transduction! Please include yourself or others!

Tagging a few people to spread the word: @drstarbird.bsky.social @fantauzzolab.bsky.social @alextoker.bsky.social

go.bsky.app/MVvjypg