Chemical Biology Seminar: Professor Xin Zhou, Harvard University
About the Seminar
"Rewiring Cell-Surface Signaling in Cancer and Immune Systems"
Cell-surface proteins are crucial regulators of how cancer and immune cells sense and respond to their environment, controlling signaling, metabolism, and interactions with surrounding cells. While cells naturally use membrane endocytosis and phosphorylation-based mechanisms to maintain homeostasis and regulate signaling, these processes also offer powerful opportunities for understanding dynamic cellular pathways and for therapeutic intervention.
In this seminar, I will discuss how our laboratory develops modular protein-engineering strategies to decode and reprogram cell-surface signaling pathways in cancer and immune systems. I will describe efforts to exploit iron-uptake pathways as therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer and introduce the development of Transferrin Receptor Targeting Chimeras (TransTACs), a bispecific antibody platform that harnesses transferrin receptor 1–mediated endocytosis to drive selective internalization and degradation of membrane proteins, with applications to oncogenic receptors such as EGFR and previously difficult-to-drug G protein–coupled receptors.
I will also discuss our work on engineering synthetic binders and signaling circuits to interrogate and rewire PD-1 checkpoint signaling in T cells, enabling spatiotemporal sensing of immune inhibitory pathways and the construction of synthetic signaling programs for enhanced cell therapy. I will further introduce our recent studies uncovering the mechanism of bispecific VEGF/PD-1 antibodies, which reveal new principles for extracellular control of immune signaling.
About the Speaker
Prof. Xin Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. She is a chemical biologist whose research integrates protein engineering, high-throughput synthetic biology platforms, and live-cell biosensor approaches to decode and reprogram cancer and immune signaling pathways. Her laboratory develops technologies to control membrane-protein trafficking, degradation, and signaling, and engineers molecular sensors and recorders to report and rewire cellular pathways in living systems. Dr. Zhou received her PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Lin and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. James Wells. Her research has been recognized with major honors, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Damon Runyon–Rachleff Innovation Award, the V Foundation Women Scientists Innovation Award, the James S. Huston Antibody Science Talent Award, and honors from multiple foundations.