Jing Zhou, M.D., Ph.D.

Principal Investigator, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Jing Zhou graduated from Shanghai Medical University in China and Oulu University in Finland. She joined the Harvard faculty in 1993, after her postdoctoral training at Yale. Dr. Zhou directs research on inherited kidney disease and polycystin biology in the renal division at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School and a member of the Harvard Genetics Department. Dr. Zhou was the first female recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology and American Heart Association in 2001. She also serves on a study section at the NIDDK and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation.

Xuefeng Su, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

I'm originally from China where I got my B.S. degree in biochemistry from Jilin University and M.S. degree in molecular biology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. In 2005, I graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center. After graduation I decided to join Jing's lab for postdoctoral training, so I moved to Boston in 2006. In general I am very interested in the role of PKD genes in the polycystic kidney disease and understanding how mutations or inactivation of them can disrupt or alter various signaling cascades, which eventually leads to the disease.

I have many hobbies besides working in the lab such as reading, listening to music, watching movies, playing bridge and other games, surfing the internet, and toyinging around with any electronics-related stuff (including but not limited to) - computers, cell phones, home theatre entertaining systems, etc. If you are interested in knowing me more, fell free to drop me a line.

Gang "Tony" Yao, M.D., Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Hi! I am Gang (Tony) Yao . I am from Beijing , China . I got my MD degree from the Capital University of Medical Sciences. After I finished my Residency Training, I decided to come to USA to satisfy my curiosity in life science. After four years hard work, I got my Ph.D. degree from the University of New Hampshire in 2006. My dissertation research is mainly focus on the mRNA degradation process in eukaryotes. Then I joined Jing Zhou lab to study the physiology and pathophysiology of polycystins and polycystic kidney disease (PKD). I hope our hard work could bring PDK patient more effective treatments and a better life.

Annouck Luyten, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

I grew up in Belgium where I did a Master in Biochemistry at the Catholic University of Leuven. After that I obtained a PhD in the Medical Sciences at the department of Human Genetics at the same university. During my PhD I investigated the role of the PDZ protein syntenin in Wnt signaling, since I found that it interacted with the Frizzled Wnt receptor. I characterized the binding and studied the role of syntenin in the Xenopus laevis frog model.

I am particularly interested in signal transduction cascades and recently I moved to Boston to join the laboratory of Prof. Jing Zhou. Here I want to study Wnt signaling in polycystic kidney disease.

Next to research I like to travel, go to the movies, go out with friends, do some sports like skiing and volleyball and explore Boston, which I start to like very much.

El Jouni, Wassim,Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

I had a lifelong interest in science since I was kid, my first experiments were done on the toys I had and the equipments at home. My practical scientific research life started after I got my Diplome De Maitrise Es Sciences in Animal Biology from the Lebanese University in 2001. After that I graduated my M.Sc. from the American University of Beirut (AUB). I then moved to UAMS (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) to pursue my Ph.D. degree in Physiology and Biophysics. During my Ph.D. work I studied the differentiation of calcium signaling during Xenopus oocyte maturation and the effect of membrane trafficking on meiotic maturation. After I met Dr. Jing Zhou at the ASCB (American Society of Cell Biology) meeting I found myself very interested in devoting time and effort to investigate the molecular basis of the polycystic kidney disease under her mentorship.

My other interests: Movies, comedy shows, discussions (arguments cause me headaches), shopping for electronic stuff, cooking my favorite dishes (each now and then), poetry writing (not in English) and some other things …

Ali K. Ahrabi, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Maoqing Wu, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Hi,my name is Maoqing Wu. I got my PhD from Fudan University in China and B.S. and M.S. degrees from Huazhong Agricultural University. After finishing my first 3-years' postdoctoral training, focused on the molecular mechanism of autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), in University of Alabama at Birmingham, I joined Dr.Jing Zhou's group in Dec 2008 to pursue further my PKD studies. I am extremely interested in exploring the cellular function of human fibrocystin (FPC), whose disruption contributes to the phenotype of ARPKD. Besides science, I have lots of other interests, such as movies,music,poetry,traveling,history,economics. If you have something to discuss, please feel free to drop me a line.

Nalini Broadbelt, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

A career in research started at Lehman College (The City University of New York) as I pursued my BA and MA in Biology. I gained valuable research experience in the Microbe-Plant Interaction laboratory of Dr. Chen examining the inhibitory effect of ammonia on root hair invasion during nodulation and determining whether nodule deficient exoY mutant can be resuced by SG+ (succinoglycan) NodC NifH or EPSII+(exopolyscaaharide) Rm 9013. Upon graduation I landed a laboratory technician position in the Endocrinology Core Laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, conducting immunoassays for diabetic research. My desire to become a scientist motivated me to apply to one of the best PhD programs at a distinguished university, Weill Cornell Medical College. Here I enrolled in the Pharmacology program and under the supervision of Dr. Felsen and Dr. Poppas examined the regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression in response to pressure in proximal tubule epithelial cells. My research resulted with the publication of three papers in peer-review journals and attendance of numerous symposiums. Today my work focuses on understanding the mechanosensory function of polycystins and its role in the calcium signaling and nitric oxide pathway.

Courtney LaPierre, B.S.

Lab Manager, Technician

Hi, my name is Courtney LaPierre and I joined the lab in July of 2009. I am from Gorham, Maine and graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in Biology. As a college student, I participated in the summer student research program at Maine Medical Center Research Institute where I gained valuable laboratory experience studying hematopoiesis. In Dr. Zhou's lab I am responsible for maintaining the transgenic mouse colonies, along with other basic lab duties. Outside the lab I enjoy expoloring Boston, playing softball, movies, reading, and lots more.

Shixuan Wang, M.D., Ph.D.

Instructor

My interests are wide, from reading Chinese and English newspapers and magzines, watching games such as basketball, to benchwork like pipetting. Oh, my research is focusing on the KIDNEY. It is just everything about the kidney: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, development, molecular biology, cell biology, pathology, pathophysiology, podocytes, basement membrane, proximal tubules, distal tubules, collecting ducts, vessels& .

This should not be all about me. Therefore,

If you want to know more about me, drop me a line.

Talk to you there.

Ayumi Takakura, Ph.D.

Instructor

Upon completion of my undergraduate training in pharmacy, I completed seven years of postgraduate training and received my PhD degree in Medical Science from Osaka University in Japan in 2002. During my PhD training, I worked on the generation and analysis of mice with a targeted deletion of a small G protein regulator, Smg GDS and RhoGDI. The second project of my PhD training focused on the isolation and characterization of transcription factors expressed in spermatogonia.

In October of 2002, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Jing Zhou. First, I worked on interaction between different heterotrimeric G protein a subunits and polycystins. Since then, I have been working on the role of G-protein signaling in polycystic kidney disease (PKD).

Finally, during my years of staying in US I have experienced tremendous personal growth. I like Boston!!