Sunny Zhou
Affiliated Faculty,
Bioengineering
Professor,
Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Office
- 617.373.4818
Research Focus
Bioanalytical Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Enzymology, Protein Chemistry, Protein Engineering, Protein Pharmaceuticals
Research Overview
Bioanalytical Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Enzymology, Protein Chemistry, Protein Engineering, Protein Pharmaceuticals
SunnyLand
SunnyLand applies protein chemistry, analysis and engineering to biology and medicine.
One program is “Hybrid Modality Engineering of Proteins”—a platform to introduce non-canonical chemical moieties and/or scaffolds into peptides and proteins to confer novel functions (mode of action) otherwise unavailable via recombinant technology.
The second is to devise chemo-enzymatic methodologies to characterize protein modifications (PTMs), such as crosslinking, isoaspartic acid formation (asparagine deamidation), S-adenosyl-methionine (AdoMet or SAM)-dependent methylations, and moreover, unknown PTMs. In collaboration with biologists and clinicians alike, we also investigate PTM biological effects, and moreover, as critical attributes in protein pharmaceuticals.
A third program area is the mechanistic studies of and inhibitor design for enzymes with intriguing mechanisms and biomedical significance.