iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Palliser Shomody on successfully defending his thesis! 🎉 It was wonderful to celebrate with so many friends, family, and colleagues, along with cake, champagne, and the gifts! We’re excited to see what’s next for him. Congrats, Dr. Shomody!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Su Hyun’s three-year fellowship will support her project on mitochondrial dysfunction-induced PKA signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma. Annie will receive support for her project on the mechanisms and functional consequences of R1β condensates in neurons. Congratulations to them both!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

🎉 Congratulations to two lab members on receiving fellowship and training grant awards! Postdoc Dr. Su Hyun Kim received the @americancancersoc.bsky.social Postdoctoral Fellowship, and graduate student Annie Charvat received the Molecular Biophysics Training Grant!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

2026 Zhang Lab Beach Outing!🏖️🌴☀️ We had a great time enjoying BBQ, playing volleyball, and hanging out together!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

We celebrated our August birthdays! Happy birthday to our Project Scientist, Sohum, and our graduate student, Annie! 🎂

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

📢 Thrilled to share our new publication in @natchembio.nature.com, led by our former graduate student Ryan Weeks! In this work, we develop HaloRasAR, a chemigenetic biosensor capable of detecting endogenous Ras by fluorogenic increase in far-red fluorescence. Find out more in the paper!

nature.com

A chemigenetic endogenous Ras activity biosensor for live-cell pharmacology - Nature Chemical Biology

Here the authors present a biosensor for measuring endogenous Ras in live cells, based on HaloTag and the fluorogenic JF635 dye, and they use it to report location-specific inhibition profiles of dist...

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

📢 Check out our new paper in ACS Nano, where we show that nanoscale architecture can control cellular signaling and behavior! This work was led by our Project Scientist Skott Lee, in collaboration with the Padmini Rangamani Lab. Congratulations to the team!🎉 doi.org/10.1021/acsn...

doi.org

Nanoscale Architecture Can Control Cellular Function

Abstract. Nanoscale protein clustering at the plasma membrane has emerged as a fundamental mechanism for organizing cellular signaling, yet how nanocluster

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Congrats to our former graduate student, Dr. Ayse Sahan, who has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Roland K. Robins Outstanding Pharmacology Thesis Award for her thesis, "Illuminating the Spatiotemporal Regulation of Metabolic Signaling." Congratulations, Ayse! 🎉

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Double the celebration this July! 🎂💍Happy birthday to postdoc Jing Ling, and congratulations to postdoc Anneliese Gest on her wedding! Wishing you all happiness, good health, and beautiful moments ahead. ✨

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Congrats to postdoc Nick Bergkamp (center) on completing the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon in 3:28:51!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Congrats to graduate student Rosie Zhou, who was awarded the Graduate and Professional Student Association’s Outstanding Community Leader award! We’re so proud of her work and her accomplishments. Congrats, Rosie!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

This work was truly a team effort, led by two former graduate students Yanghao Zhong and Ayse Sahan, and contributed by many others in the lab. Huge thanks to our excellent collaborators Sam Myers and Silvio Gutkind. Read it here: rdcu.be/fiFNy

rdcu.be

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Using this tool, we discovered that nuclear mTORC1 drives a specific transcriptional program that matters for cancer cell survival.

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

New paper, new tool! 🚨 Where a signaling protein lives matters as much as what it does. Our new tool lets you interrogate this one compartment at a time. We built TerminaTOR, a genetically encodable inhibitor that silences mTORC1 at subcellular locations.

rdcu.be

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Happy birthday to the April and May Zhang Lab birthdays! We celebrated Nick, and then Rosie, Su Hyun, and Max with cake and song in our latest group meetings! 🎂

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Reposted by Jin Zhang Lab

FASEB @faseborg.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Encode the cell signals for this "dynamic" conference! Featuring keynotes Tobias Meyer of @weillcornell.bsky.social and @jinzhanglab.bsky.social, alongside organizers Mary Teruel, Eric Batchelor, @bugajlab.bsky.social, and Andrew Paek. Register and submit your abstract by April 26: buff.ly/YMRzst4

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

We also demonstrate a more selective AKAR variant, able to distinguish nuclear PKA signaling that is otherwise obscured by other kinase signals. This work also relied on collaboration with @globus1.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵 5/5

biorxiv.org

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

In the second paper, led by Jin-Fan Zhang and @weilin1113.bsky.social , we focus on the development of AKAR6, an improved PKA biosensor with improved sensitivity, enabling diverse readouts including flow cytometry, FLIM-FRET and 2-photon imaging in brain slices. 🧵 4/5

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

With high sensitivity and flexible spectral tuning, these sensors enable robust multiplexed and lifetime-based imaging across diverse signaling pathways. This platform makes it possible to visualize subtle spatiotemporal signaling dynamics in living cells and physiologically relevant tissues. 🧵3/5

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Led by grad student Xinchang He and in collaboration with @michellefrei17.bsky.social and @yaochen20.bsky.social we developed a new series of chemigenetic FRET-based biosensors by pairing fluorescent protein donors with HaloTag–far-red dyes, providing enhanced dynamic range over FP-based designs.

Cartoon schematic of YHt-AKAR and RHt-AKAR

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

🚨🚨Double preprint alert! 🚨🚨 Two papers went up on Biorxiv this week! The first presents new chemigenetic FRET-based biosensors: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... And the second presents an improved version of our C-Y FRET PKA reporters, AKAR6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread 🧵 1/5

biorxiv.org

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Happy birthday to graduate student Yingqi! Another year, another #dragonknife and cake! 🎂

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Congratulations to graduate student Rosie Zhou and postdoc Nick Bergkamp on winning poster prizes at last month’s Roger Tsien Cell Signaling Symposium! It was a great day with lots of amazing science, and nice to have our trainees’ work highlighted.

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Just before the holidays we celebrated project scientist Ben Li, who is moving on to a new position at Zymo Research. Congratulations and good luck in your future endeavors, Ben!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

At our annual holiday party we wished a happy birthday to graduate student Evan Wen! Happy birthday and happy holidays, Evan! #dragonknife

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We recently said farewell to Ryan Weeks, who defended his thesis a few months ago and is now moving on from the lab to do a postdoc in Mia Myong-Hee Sung’s lab at the NIH (irp.nih.gov/pi/myong-hee...)! We'll miss him but we're proud to see him take his next scientific steps. Congrats, Dr. Weeks!

A photo of Ryan on the left, and Jin on the right, outside with trees and a blue sky.

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Congratulations to graduate student Evan Wen on receiving and NIH F31 Fellowship Award for his project “Spatial diversity of GPCR-mediated ERK signaling and its role in cardiovascular disease”!

Photo of Evan outside the building our lab is housed in.

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Check out this recent paper from the lab, which sheds light on the physiological role of RIa phase separation, including its impact on insulin secretion! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... This work was led by project scientist Skott and former grad student Julia, part of our phase separation team!

Visualization of PKA regulatory subunit RIa (green) forming phase-separated condensates with the catalytic subunit (red) in MIN6 beta cells, revealing dynamic protein organization within the cytoplasm. Cell nuclei are in blue.

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Last week we celebrated Wei, @weilin1113.bsky.social, who has left the Zhang lab to start his independent career at Jiangnan University, focused on glycobiology. Wei has led numerous projects including the kinase integrator, KINACT. We’re proud of his work here and excited to see his next steps!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Congratulations to Leah Bae, who successfully defended her master’s thesis last week! We’re very proud of her achievements in the lab and are excited for her next steps!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Congratulations to Dr Ayse Sahan! Ayse defended her thesis this summer, and just finished up in the lab to move to her next adventure: a postdoc at UChicago! We miss Ayse already, but we’re very proud of what she’s accomplished here and excited to see her future work! #DragonKnife #PhDone

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Last week we said “au revoir” to Prof. Xavier Nicol, who joined us for his sabbatical over the last year. It’s been great to have him for discussions and ideas, and we’re excited to keep working with him on collaborations!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Congratulations to Dr Emily Pool, who defended her thesis last week! She’s been an incredible asset to the lab, from her precision, to her mentorship, to the subject of her work, phase separation of PKA regulatory subunits. We’re so excited to see what she does next! Congrats, Dr. Pool!

Emily posing with the Dragon Knife about to cut a celebratory cake

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Reposted by Jin Zhang Lab

Weill Institute for Cell & Molecular Biology @weillinstitute.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

We are counting down the days to our Protein Science Symposium on June 10-12! Thrilled to be hosting our colleagues from WCM @weillcornell.bsky.social as well as keynote speakers Dr. Christopher Lima @christopherdlima.bsky.social and Dr. ‪Jin Zhang @jinzhanglab.bsky.social

3D rendering of a Ankyrin R adaptor protein

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Three cakes! 🎂🎂🎂 The Zhang lab is full of May birthdays! Happy birthday to grad students Rosie and Max, and to postdoc Su-Hyun. (And belated birthdays to postdocs Nick and Ben, not part of today’s triple cake event, but celebrated nonetheless) #dragonknife

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Congratulations to graduate student Rosie Zhou, who won the Shu and KC Chien Best Poster in Bioengineering award at the annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo for her poster “Visualizing Protein Communication in Human Cells to Improve Cancer Treatment” @jacobsschool.bsky.social

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Graduate Student Yingqi Zhu won the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program predoctoral research award. This grant will support her work on "Spatiotemporal cGAMP Signaling in Tobacco-Induced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Metastasis."

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Postdoc Dr. Nick Bergkamp received the Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Dutch Research Council, and the Van Zweiten PHD Thesis Award. The Rubicon Fellowship will support his project, "Location, location, location - Spatial Organization of AT1R-mediated ERK Signaling in the Diseased Heart."

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Congratulations to two members of the lab on receiving fellowships and prizes! We're very proud of them, and these awards will support their work on signaling in heart disease and lung cancer, respectively. Details in the thread for each of their projects. 🧵

Headshots of Dr. Nick Bergkamp and Yingqi Zhu, along with the titles of their awards and their projects. For Nick, the Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellowship- Dutch Research Council and Van Zwieten PHD Thesis Award, for the project "Location, location, location - Spatial organization of AT1R-Galphaq-mediated ERK signaling in the diseased heart." For Yingqi, The 2025 TRDRP Predoctoral Award for her project, Spatiotemporal cGAMP signaling in Tobacco-induced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Metastasis

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

As Michelle mentioned, this paper was an incredible team effort, especially from two current graduate students, Samantha Sanchez and Xinchang He, who finished up many aspects of the project within the lab!

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

So happy to see Michelle’s excellent paper from her postdoc with us now out! Her expertise allowed us to develop a new class of KARs with enhanced dynamic range and shifted to the far-red. Everyone should keep an eye on her independent career, more incredible work is on the way!

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Rita Strack @ritastrack.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Your yearly reminder to acknowledge the core facilities you use and their staff scientists in your papers. These scientists are a crucial part of the scientific ecosystem and to continue to exist they need tangible credit for their work. Plus their associated expertise adds credibility to your work.

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Reposted by Jin Zhang Lab

jihwanjameslee.bsky.social @jihwanjameslee.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

🧵 1/6 Just dropped in @naturecomms.bsky.social We’ve engineered the most photostable yellow fluorescent proteins (YFPs) to date—mGold2s and mGold2t—with up to 25× greater photostability than mVenus and mCitrine, without compromising brightness. 👇 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Congratulations to graduate student Ayse Sahan and former student Shawn Mingyuan Chen on the publication of their lipid biosensors in PNAS! With these sensors, we’re able to track PI(3,4)P2 and PIP3 signaling in the cell, and show the lysosome is a PIP3 signaling site. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

pnas.org

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Last week we celebrated 3 lab birthdays! Happy birthday to grad students Qian and Pal, and Project Scientist Scott! #DragonKnife

A photo of three people and three cakes. Qian is in the front, holding a serrated knife with dragon accents, poised over a fruit tart. Behind her and bending left is Pal, and behind him and bending right is Skott.

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Reposted by Jin Zhang Lab

JoAnn Trejo @joann-trejo.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

STAND UP FOR SCIENCE! Join us and thousands nationwide on Friday, March 7th at noon at the UC San Diego Geisel Library / Silent Tree

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

On Friday we had our lab farewell party for postdoc @chrisqs.bsky.social, with lunch, cake, and lab sweater and mug! #DragonKnife Qi is moving on to a position in Dr. Diane Simeone’s lab at Moores Cancer Center. We’ve loved working with Qi, and are excited to see what he does going forward!

Qi holding the dragon knife, preparing to slice a cake.

Qi and Jin standing next to each other and smiling.

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Jin Zhang Lab @jinzhanglab.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Two members of the lab, @ammgest.bsky.social and @anne-lyons-bioe.bsky.social will be at the Biophysical Society Meeting #bps2025 02/15 -02/19! Check out their posters on 02/18 from 1:45 to 2:45!

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