Dr. Yingming Zhao

Yingming Zhao received his Ph.D. degree from Rockefeller University under Professor Brian Chait in 1997. He was an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine from 1998 to 2008. He relocated to the University of Chicago in 2008 and was promoted to professor in 2011. Yingming's main research interests lie in developing and applying mass spectrometry-based proteomics technologies to the discovery of undescribed cellular pathways (with a current focus on protein post-translational modification (PTM) pathways and epigenetic mechanisms). He uses an integrated approach, involving proteomics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology, to decode PTM networks that have implications for human health and are not amenable to conventional techniques. His laboratory recently discovered 12 types of new lysine acylation pathways and identified and characterized their protein substrates (including 700 histone marks), specific binders, and regulatory enzymes. They and others show that these PTM pathways play an important role in epigenetic regulation and cellular metabolism, and contribute to physiology changes (e.g., hypoxia) and cellular dysfunctions associated with diverse diseases, such as cancer and diabetes.