Research Interests:
Our research focuses on inventing chemical tools for the spatiotemporally resolved mapping of biomolecules and biophysical signaling that underlie neuronal functions. This mainly follows three lines of efforts: 1) free radical-based chemical probes for profiling proteins and RNAs in neurons, 2) optical reporters for neural activities, and 3) directed evolution platforms that drive technological advancements in the above two fronts.
Selected Publications:
1. Zheng, F., Yu, C., Zhou, X. and Zou, P.* (2023). Genetically encoded photocatalytic protein labeling enables spatially-resolved profiling of intracellular proteome. Nat. Commun. 14, 2978.
2. Liu, S.#, Lin, C.#, Xu, Y.#, Luo, H., Peng, L., Zeng, X., Zheng, H., Chen, P. R.* and Zou, P.* (2021). A far-red hybrid voltage indicator enabled by bioorthogonal engineering of rhodopsin on live neurons. Nat. Chem. 13, 472-479.
3. Ding, T.#, Zhu, L.#, Fang, Y., Liu, Y., Tang, W. and Zou, P.* (2020). Chromophore-assisted proximity labeling of DNA reveals chromosomal organization in living cells. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 59, 22933-22937.
4. Wang, P.#, Tang, W.#, Li, Z.#, Zou, Z., Zhou, Y., Li, R., Xiong, T., Wang, J.* and Zou, P.* (2019). Mapping spatial transcriptome with light-activated proximity-dependent RNA labeling. Nat. Chem. Biol. 15, 1110-1119.
5. Xu, Y.#, Peng, L.#, Wang, S.#, Wang, A.#, Ma, R., Zhou, Y., Yang, J., Sun, D. E., Lin, W., Chen, X. and Zou, P.* (2018). Hybrid indicators for fast and sensitive voltage imaging. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 57, 3949-3953.
Lab Website: