Lei Zheng
Associate Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The research in my laboratory is focused on the structural biology of membrane proteins. We are interested in several important membrane proteins involved in cardiac calcium ion homeostasis and pathogenic recognition during the bacterial infection. A wide spectrum of biochemical and biophysical technologies is applied to study the structural and functional relationship of these proteins. The goal of our research projects is to provide the molecular basis of these important biological events by pursing the atomic protein structure with x-ray crystallography. In addition, a strong interest in our lab is the development of novel approach for membrane protein purification and crystallization with recombinant antibody technology.
Depending on the student’s interests, a tutorial in my laboratory would provide experience with Molecular biology, protein expression and purification, biochemical and biophysical characterization of membrane proteins, macromolecular crystallization and x-ray crystallography, recombinant antibody technology.
McGovern Medical School Faculty
Education & Training
Ph.D. - University of Bern (Switzerland) - 2003
Research Info
Molecular mechanisms of Ca2+ homeostasis and lipid metabolism