Dr. Qiang Zhou received his Bachelor and Ph.D. degree from School of Life Sciences in Tsinghua University. Following a three-year postdoctoral position, he joined School of Medicine in Tsinghua University as a research associate professor in 2015. Then Dr. Zhou joined Westlake University as a Westlake Fellow in 2018 and promoted to assistant professor in 2020. 

Dr. Zhou’s lab focuses on the study of the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infecting cells and the working mechanisms of solute carrier proteins. Dr. Zhou has published a series of works on as corresponding author or co-corresponding author on Science, Nature, Cell, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Cell Research, and other journals.

Dr. Zhou’s lab solved the structure of the full-length ACE2, the cell surface receptor of SARS-CoV-2, alone or in complex with the receptor binding domain of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, revealing the first moment that the virus infects the human cells. This work was published on Science as a cover article in March 2020. After that, Dr. Zhou’s lab solved the complex structure of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 with the potent neutralizing antibody 4A8 in collaboration with prof. Wei Chen. 4A8 is the first reported SARS-CoV-2 antibody targeting non-RBD domain of the spike protein. This work provides a structural basis for antibody optimization and vaccine development. The work was published on Science in June 2020.

In the field of amino acid transporters, Dr. Zhou’s lab solved the 3D structure of the LAT1-4F2hc complex that is considered to be an important target for anticancer drug development, providing structural basis for the rational design of the new anticancer drugs. This work was published on Nature in March 2019. After that, Dr. Zhou’s lab continued to solve the 3D structure of another human amino acid transporter b^0,+AT-rBAT complex, which revealed the molecular mechanism of cystinuria and provided clues for the possible treatment. This work was published on Science Advances in April 2020.

* Corresponding author.

# These authors contribute to this work equally.

1. Renhong Yan^#, Yaning Li^#, Jennifer Müller^#, Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Simon Singer, Lu Xia, Xinyue Zhong, Jürg Gertsch, Karl-Heinz Altmann^*, Qiang Zhou^*. Mechanism of substrate transport and inhibition of the human LAT1-4F2hc amino acid transporter. Cell discovery. 2021;7(1):16.

2. Renhong Yan^#, Ruoke Wang^#, Bin Ju^#, Jinfang Yu^#, Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Nan Liu^#, Jia Wang, Qi Zhang, Peng Chen, Bing Zhou, Yaning Li, Yaping Shen, Shuyuan Zhang, Long Tian, Yingying Guo, Lu Xia, Xinyue Zhong, Lin Cheng, Xiangyang Ge, Juanjuan Zhao, Hong-Wei Wang, Xinquan Wang, Zheng Zhang^*, Linqi Zhang^*, Qiang Zhou^*. Structural basis for bivalent binding and inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection by human potent neutralizing antibodies. Cell Research. 2021:1-9.

3. Renhong Yan^#*, Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Yaning Li^#, Fangfei Ye, Yingying Guo, Lu Xia, Xinyue Zhong, Ximin Chi, Qiang Zhou^*. Structural basis for the different states of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in complex with ACE2. Cell Research. 2021:1-3.

4. Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Qiongxuan Fan^#, Ximin Chi^#, Qiang Zhou^*, Yanyan Li^*. Cryo-EM structures of Acinetobacter baumannii glycerophospholipid transporter. Cell Discovery. 2020 Nov 19;6(1):86. doi:10.1038/s41421-020-00230-5.

5. Ximin Chi^#, Xiaorong Li^#, Yun Chen^#, Yuanyuan Zhang, Qiang Su, Qiang Zhou^*. Cryo-EM structures of the full-length human KCC2 and KCC3 cation-chloride cotransporters. Cell Research. 2020 Nov 16. doi:10.1038/s41422-020-00437-x. Online ahead of print.

6. Liang Guo^#, Wenwen Bi^#, Xinling Wang^#, Wei Xu^#, Renhong Yan^#, Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Kai Zhao, Yaning Li, Mingfeng Zhang, Xia Cai, Shibo Jiang, Youhua Xie, Qiang Zhou^*, Lu Lu^*, Bobo Dang^*. Engineered trimeric ACE2 binds viral spike protein and locks it in "Three-up" conformation to potently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection. Cell Research. 2020 Nov 11;1-3.  doi:10.1038/s41422-020-00438-w.  Online ahead of print.

7. Renhong Yan^#, Jiayao Zhou^#, Yaning Li^#, Jianlin Lei, Qiang Zhou^*. Structural insight into the substrate recognition and transport mechanism of the human LAT2-4F2hc complex. Cell Discovery. 2020 Nov 10;6(1):82. doi:10.1038/s41421-020-00207-4.

8. Ximin Chi^#, Qiongxuan Fan^#, Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Ke Liang, Li Wan, Qiang Zhou^*, Yanyan Li^*. Structural mechanism of phospholipids translocation by MlaFEDB complex. Cell Research. 2020 Sep 3. doi: 10.1038/s41422-020-00404-6. Online ahead of print.

9. Ximin Chi^#, Xueqin Jin^#, Yun Chen^#, Xiaoli Lu^#, Xinyu Tu, Xiaorong Li, Yuanyuan Zhang, Jianlin Lei, Jing Huang, Zhuo Huang^*, Qiang Zhou^*, Xiaojing Pan^*. Structural insights into the gating mechanism of human SLC26A9 mediated by its C-terminal sequence. Cell Discovery. 2020 Aug 10,6:55. doi: 10.1038/s41421-020-00193-7. eCollection 2020.

10. Xiangyang Chi^#, Renhong Yan^#, Jun Zhang^#, Guanying Zhang, Yuanyuan Zhang, Meng Hao, Zhe Zhang, Pengfei Fan, Yunzhu Dong, Yilong Yang, Zhengshan Chen, Yingying Guo, Jinlong Zhang, Yaning Li, Xiaohong Song, Yi Chen, Lu Xia, Ling Fu, Lihua Hou, Junjie Xu, Changming Yu, Jianmin Li^*, Qiang Zhou^*, Wei Chen^*. A Neutralizing Human Antibody Binds to the N-terminal Domain of the Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2. Science. 2020.6.22, eabc6952. doi:10.1126/science.abc6952.

11. Renhong Yan ^#, Yaning Li ^#, Yi Shi^#, Jiayao Zhou, Jianlin Lei, Jing Huang^*, Qiang Zhou^*. Cryo-EM structure of the human heteromeric amino acid transporter b^0,+AT-rBAT. Science Advances. 2020.4.15, 6(16), eaay6379

12. Renghong Yan, Yuanyuan Zhang^#, Yaning Li^#, Lu Xia, Yingying Guo, Qiang Zhou^*. Structural basis for the recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 by full-length human ACE2. Science. 2020.3.27,367(6485):1444-1448.

13. Renghong Yan^#, Xin Zhao^#, Jianlin Lei, Qiang Zhou^*. Structure of the human LAT1-4F2hc heteromeric amino acid transporter complex. Nature. 2019,568(7750):127-130.

14. Deshun Gong^#*, Ximin Chi^#, Kang Ren^#, Gaoxingyu Huang, Gewei Zhou, Nieng Yan, Jianlin Lei, Qiang Zhou^*. Structure of the human plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase 1 in complex with its obligatory subunit neuroplastin. Nature Communications. 2018.12, 9(1): 3623

15. Huaizong Shen^#, Zhangqiang Li^#, Yan Jiang^#, Xiaojing Pan^#, Jianping Wu, Ben Cristofori Armstrong, Jennifer J Smith, Yanni K Y Chin, Jianlin Lei, Qiang Zhou^*, Glenn F King^*, Nieng Yan^*. Structural basis for the modulation of voltage-gated sodium channels by animal toxins. Science. 2018.10.19, 362(6412): eaau2596

16. Xin Gong^#, Hongwu Qian^#, Xinhui Zhou^#, Jianping Wu^#, Tao Wan^#, Pingping Cao, Weiyun Huang, Xin Zhao, Xudong Wang, Peiyi Wang, Yi Shi, George F. Gao, Qiang Zhou^*, Nieng Yan^*. Structural Insights into the Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1)-Mediated Cholesterol Transfer and Ebola Infection. Cell. 2016.6.2, 165(6): 1467~1478