|
| |
Zhenglun Jerry, Zhu MD, Ph.D.
Attending and Clinical Assistant Professor
Gastroenterology Internal Medicine
Education:
Beijing, Peking University Health Science Center
Main Office:
Mass General Brigham
617-732-6593
75 Francis St Thorn 1423
Boston, MA 02115 
Clinic Intersts:
medical oncology, gastroenterology, hepatology and endoscopy, medical oncology.
Sub-Specialty: Gastroenterology
Clinical Interests: Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology-Endoscopy
Dr. Jerry Zhu received hisfrom Beijing Medical University, his Ph.D. from Columbia University
and in 2000, completed fellowship training in the Gastroenterology Division at Brigham and Women’s
Hospital. The major interest of Dr. Zhu’s research is to understand how signal regulated
proteolysis control cell proliferation and differentiation. One of the most fundamental questions
facing development biologist is how an organism develops from a fertilized egg that contains a
simple symmetrical structure into an adult with three dimensional body plan, the patterning process.
Dysregulation of the patterning process results in aborted embryogenesis during early development
and frequently results in tumor formation in adult life. Since the biochemical pathways that
underlie the patterning process are often reserved thorough life, studying patterning formation
during early development has offered an excellent tool to explore the basic mechanisms that underlie
the most fundamental questions of development as well as clinical questions, such as the
pathogenesis of cancer. Over the past decades, signal regulated- proteolysis as emerged as the
central controller of cell cycle progress, signaling transduction, and transcription regulation.
Two signaling pathways play important roles in the patterning of early embryos and during gut
ontogenesis: the Wnt signaling pathway and the BMP signaling pathways. The signal flux of both
pathways is governed by ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. Altered stability of b-catenin, a
downstream transcription regulator of the Wnt signaling, disrupts dorsoventral pattern formation
during early embryogenesis and is implicated in the pathogenesis of both sporadic and inherited
colorectal cancer. To further define the function of proteolysis during development, we have found
that the particular cellular protein degradation machinery that governs signal flow of the Wnt
signaling is also involved in toning the effect of signaling of the BMP pathway. Although protein
degradations of both Wnt signaling pathways and BMP signaling pathway are phosphorylation dependent,
the kinases that control substrate stability of these pathways appear to be different. Current
efforts are focused on identifying the kinases involved in regulating protein degradation of the BMP
pathway and the extra-cellular signals involved in regulating proteolysis of these pathways. Dr.
Zhu is also interested in the study of viral-host interaction. After successfully identifying the
receptor and deciphering the intracellular maturation pathway of the Varicella-Zoster virus in a
collaborative effort with the lab of Drs. Ann and Michael Gershon of Columbia University, Dr. Zhu’s
lab is currently focusing on the mechanism of assembly of HCV, a major liver pathogen that leads to
cirrhosis and liver cancer.
| |
|
