Yu Zhang
Michigan State University, MI·Microbiology & Immunology
To fight a huge range of germs, the immune system makes antibodies in enormous variety. That variety begins in developing B cells, which cut and paste gene segments, called V, D and J, in a process known as V(D)J recombination.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
Biochemistry
- Topics
V(D)J recombination
RAG endonuclease
immunoglobulin heavy chain
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2026
What they work on
- Test whether cohesin-driven chromatin loop extrusion, in which DNA is pulled through cohesin to form loops, is required to bring distant V segments together with DJ segments for recombination at the IgH locus.
- Determine the molecular mechanisms behind cohesin-mediated long-range looping at IgH, using ultra-sensitive chromatin interaction assays and genetic studies.
- Identify and characterize new IgH cis-regulatory elements, DNA control regions that direct long-range RAG targeting, using an engineered v-Abl pro-B cell line.
More about the research
In the antibody heavy-chain gene region (IgH), hundreds of V segments are spread across 2.4 million DNA letters, far from the D and J segments. The cutting enzyme RAG (made of RAG1 and RAG2) must bring matched signal sequences, called RSSs, together before it cuts. How such distant pieces of DNA meet in space is a major open question, and mistakes in targeting can damage the genome and contribute to lymphoid cancers.
Why it matters
Understanding how the genome's 3D folding steers RAG to the right antibody gene segments explains how the body generates diverse antibodies to protect against pathogens. It could also clarify how mistargeted recombination causes the DNA damage underlying lymphoid malignancies, cancers of immune cells such as lymphomas and leukemias.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Uttiya Basu
Columbia University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether B cell development can be rescued in RNA exosome-deficient mice, and whether VDJ-carRNAs, chromatin-associated RNAs from the IgH locus, control VDJ recombination efficiency by the RAG enzymes.
Alistair Boettiger
Stanford University, CA·Biophysics
Measure how genomic distance and context shape 3D-genome motion, meaning the frequency, speed and timescales of contacts, at a simple and a complex locus using TRACK-IT live imaging with transposon-tiled fluorescent DNA labels.
Alan P Boyle
University of Michigan, MI·Genetics
Quantify how transposable element activity changes binding of CTCF, a protein that anchors DNA loops, across a population sample of 51 well-studied individuals using computational methods.
The school
Michigan State University: 28 labs on PI Pages, $932M a year on research, 555 research doctorates a year.
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