Ping Zhang

Associate Professor

Molecular and Cell Biology / Genetics and Genomics

Education: Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Postdoctoral studies, Carnegie Inst. of Washington

Research Interests: Genetic interactions of neurodegenerative proteins in Drosophila; Key molecular pathways and networks that influence the disease proteins’ toxicities: Expanded polyglutamine (Huntington’s disease), Pink1 Parkin pathway (Parkinson’s disease), FTD-ALS (ALS disease).

Selected Publications:

Timakov, B., Liu X., Turgut, I. and Zhang, P. (2002) Timing and targeting of P-element local transposition in the male germ line cells of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics160: 1011-1022.

Morrow, G., Battistini, G., Zhang, P. and Tanguay, R. (2004) Decreased lifespan in the absence of expression of the mitochondrial small heat shock protein Hsp22 in Drosophila. J. Biol. Chem. 279: 43382-43385.

Hao, X. M., Zhang, S., Timakov, B. and Zhang, P. (2007) The Hsp27 gene is not required for Drosophila development but its activity is associated with starvation resistance. Cell Stress & Chaperones 12: 364-372.

Sudi, J., Zhang, S., Intrieri, G., Hao, X. M. and Zhang, P. (2008) Coincidence of P-insertion sites and breakpoints of deletions induced by activating P elements in Drosophila. Genetics 179: 227-235.

Cao, L., Zhang, P. and Grant, D. (2009) An insect farnesyl phosphatase homologous to the N-terminal domain of soluble epoxide hydrolase. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 380: 188-192.

Zhang, P., Wang, Q., Hughes, H. and Intrieri, G. (2014) Synthetic lethality induced by a strong Drosophila enhancer of expanded polyglutamine tract. Open Journal of Genetics 4: 300-315.

Zhang, P., Camacho, D., Vodapally, S., Williams, S. and Kannan, K. (2015) Synthetic lethality induced by toxic polyglutamine tract II: a survey in Drosophila. Open Journal of Genetics 5: 58-70.