Open positions!!!
Three phD positions per year:
· Students with background of biology/chemistry/physics/etc and interest to explore biomolecules (pore-forming proteins, membrane proteins, peptide etc) self-assembly, dynamics and working mechanisms in native-like environment. You are very welcome!!
· Students with background of engineering/bioengineering and interest to work on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) development. Please don’t hesitate to contact us!!
Postdoc positions:
· We are always recruiting postdocs with background of biology/chemistry/biophysics/etc. People with research experience of cell culture, protein purification, AFM/TEM operation, polymer synthesis, etc will help. Don\'t hestitate to contact me!! Looking for talented individuals to join us!!
My Education and Working Experience:
2021.05-present: Associate Professor, Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
11/2019-04/2021: Postdoc Associate, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
05/2017-10/2019: Postdoc Associate, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, USA.
11/2016-04/2017: Research Associate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, USA.
09/2011-10/2016: Joint Ph.D. Student of East China Normal University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Research Interest:
I. Using high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) to understand biomolecules (Cytoskeletal proteins, pore forming proteins, membrane proteins, etc) self-assembly, dynamics and working mechanisms in native-like environment.
i) Septins are a family of cytoskeletal GTP-binding proteins, conserved from fungi through humans, which have key roles in cell division, cell polarity, and membrane remodeling. While recent structural studies have provided snapshots of the various septin assembly levels, mechanistic questions how septin filaments elongate and further assemble into higher hierarchical structures, and crucial structural determinants and environmental factors regulating septin assembly remain unanswered. We use HS-AFM and determine that assembly of septin filaments and filament pairing are diffusing driven processes, while septin assembly into higher order 3D structures is more complex and involves septin self-templating. Environmental pH and KCl concentration influences septin filament assembly, packing, pairing and multilayer formation. This first direct dynamic imaging of septins with single molecule resolution indicates that septin itself and environmental factors allow cells to fine-tune septin assembly in a task-specific way.
ii) Perforin-2 is an immune system toxin that provides front line defense against bacteria that cause serious disease in humans when they grow within or on human cells. This is achieved by perforin-2 targeting bacterial cell membranes by assembling into rings and forming pores. Using HS-AFM and other approaches, we characterize the function and transition of pre-pore and pore states. Surprisingly, in regions of the protein responsible for pore formation face away from the membrane to which the protein is bound in the pre-pore.
II. Using in-situ AFM to understand diblock copolymer/peptide self-assembly and crystallization mechanisms.
We succeeded in synthesizing a new class of 2D materials from three peptoids (Pep-2, Pep-3, and Pep-4) that have an amphiphilic structure akin to the lipids that form bilayer cell membranes. Using in-situ AFM to both dissect these membrane-like materials and image their subsequent behavior, we explore their ability to self-repair on a range of solid substrates.
III. Investigating intermolecular interactions by AFM and dynamic force spectroscopy.
Contractile injection systems, ubiquitous in bacteria, are complex macromolecular machines that are able to perforate the host cell envelope and deliver proteins and/or DNA. While the structures of contractile sheaths are now solved in both extended and contracted states, almost nothing is known about the physics of the system. Here we use HS-AFM imaging and force measurements to characterize R-type pyocin sheaths. The head-on pyocins can be segregated into two classes, one visibly capped the other one open, certainly representing the far and the tube-releasing ends of the empty sheath. To analyze the force and energy stored in the system for host cell envelope penetration, we use the HS-AFM tip to extend the length of the contracted sheath and determine its spring constant k(pyocin)~117 pN/nm, indicating that the force applied by a pyocin may reach ~6.7 nN and the energy stored in the extended sheath may amount to ~46,000 kBT.
Publications (#co-first author; *corresponding author)：
1. Keli Ren, James Daniel Farrell, Yueyue Li, Xinrui Guo, Ruipei Xie, Xin Liu, Qiaozhen Kang, Qihui Fan, Fangfu Ye, Jingjin Ding, Fang Jiao*. Mechanisms of RCD-1 pore formation and membrane bending. Nature Communications. 2025. 16: 1011.
2. Peiyong Song, Jing Chen, Dan Zhao, Ke Shi, Runze Xu, Mengyue Zhu, Li Zhao*, E. Thomas Pashuck, Liliang Ouyang, Fang Jiao, and Yiyang Lin*. Evolving Emulsion Microcompartments via Enzyme-Mimicking Amyloid-Mediated Interfacial Catalysis. Small. 2024. 240961.
3. Hui Guo*, Chenyu Bai, Ke Zhu, Senhao Lv, Zhaoyi Zhai, Jingyuan Qu, Guoyu Xian, Yechao Han, Guojing Hu, Qi Qi, Guangtong Liu, Fang Jiao, Lihong Bao, Xiaotian Bao, Xinfeng Liu, Hui Chen, Xiao Lin, Wu Zhou, Jiadong Zhou, Haitao Yang*, and Hong-Jun Gao. Controllable Synthesis of High-Quality Magnetic Topological Insulator MnBi2Te4 and MnBi4Te7 Multilayers by Chemical Vapor Deposition. Nano Letters. 2024. 24, 15788−15795.
4. Zhaoyi Zhai#, Sakshi Yadav Schmid#, Zhixing Lin, Shuai Zhang*, Fang Jiao*. Unveiling the Nanoscale Architectures and Dynamics of Protein Assembly with in situ Atomic Force Microscopy. Aggregate. 2024. e604.
5. Xiangyuan Wang; Linlin Li; Yixuan Meng; Lingwen Tan; Wei-Wei Huang; Zhiwei Zhu; Fang Jiao; LiMin Zhu*. A Normal-Stressed Electromagnetic-Driven Stiffness-Tunable Nanopositioner. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. 2024. 3366217.
6. Jing Chen, Ke Shi, Rongjing Chen, Zhaoyi Zhai, Peiyong Song, Lesley W. Chow, Rona Chandrawati, E. Thomas Pashuck, Fang Jiao, Yiyang Lin*. Supramolecular Hydrolase Mimics in Equilibrium and Kinetically Trapped States. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2024. e202317887.
7. Hao Li, Yingying Yu, Meixia Ruan, Fang Jiao, Hailong Chen, Jiali Gao, Yuxiang Weng*, Yongzhen Bao*. The mechanism for thermal-enhanced chaperone-like activity of α-crystallin against UV irradiation-induced aggregation of γD-crystallin. Biophysical Journal. 2022. 121:1-18.
8. F. Jiao*; F. Dehez; T. Ni; X. Yu; J. Dittman; R. Gilbert; C. Chipot; S. Scheuring*. Perforin-2 clockwise hand-over-hand pre-pore to pore transition mechanism. Nature Communications. 2022. 13: 5039.
9. A. Fraser#; N. Prokhorov#; F. Jiao#; B. M. Pettitt; S. Scheuring*; P. Leiman*. Quantitative description of a contractile macromolecular machine. Science Advances. 2021. 7: eabf9601.
10. F. Jiao; Y. Ruan; S. Scheuring*. High-speed atomic force microscopy to study pore-forming proteins. Methods in Enzymology. 2021. 649: 189-217.
11. F. Jiao; K. Cannon; Y. Lin; A. Gladfelter; S. Scheuring*. The hierarchical assembly of septins revealed by high-speed AFM. Nature Communications. 2020. 11, 5062.
12. T. Ni#; F. Jiao#; X.Yu#; S. Aden; L. Ginger; S. Williams; F. Bai; V. Prazak; D. Karia; P. Stansfeld; P. Zhang; G. Munson; G. Anderluh; S. Scheuring*; R. Gilbert*. Structure and mechanism of bactericidal mammalian perforin-2, an ancient agent of innate immunity. Science Advances. 2020. 6: eaax8286. (# Co-first author)
13. F. Jiao; X. Wu; T. Jian; S. Zhang; H. Jin; P. He; C. Chen*; J. J. De Yoreo*. Hierarchical assembly of peptoid-based cylindrical micelles exhibiting efficient resonance energy transfer in aqueous solution. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2019. 58: 2-10.
14. H. Jin#; F. Jiao#; M. Daily#; Y. Chen; F. Yan; Y. Ding; X. Zhang; E. J. Robertson; M. D. Baer; C. Chen*. Highly stable and self-repairing membrane-mimetic 2D nanomaterials assembled from lipid-like peptoids. Nature Communications. 2016. 7. 12252. (# Co-first author)
15. F. Jiao; Y. Chen; H. Jin; P. He; C. Chen*; J. J. De Yoreo*. Self-repair and patterning of 2D membrane-like peptoid materials. Advanced Functional Materials. 2016. 48: 8960-8967 (Inside Front Cover).
16. F. Jiao; H. Fan; G. Yang; F. Zhang; P. He*. Directly investigating the interaction between aptamers and thrombin by AFM. Journal of Molecular Recognition. 2013. 26: 672-678.
17. H. Li; Y. Yu; M. Ruan; F. Jiao; H. Chen; J. Gao; Y. Weng*; Y. Bao*. The mechanism for thermal-enhanced chaperone-like activity of α-crystallin against UV irradiation-induced aggregation of γD-crystallin. Biophysical Journal. 2022. 121: 1-18.
18. A. Ben-Sasson; J. Watson, W. Sheffler; M. C. Johnson; A. Bittleston; L. Somasundaram; J. Decarreau; F. Jiao; …; E. Derivery*; D. Baker*. Design of biologically active binary protein 2D material. Nature. 2021. 589: 468-473.
19. Z. Yaari#; J. Cheung#; H. Baker#; R. Frederiksen#; P. Jena; C. Horoszko; F. Jiao; S. Scheuring; M. Luo; D. Heller*. Nanoreporter of an Enzymatic Suicide Inactivation Pathway. Nano Letters. 2020. 20: 7819-7827.
20. X. Ma; S. Zhang; F. Jiao; C. Newcomb; …; C. Chen*; J. J. De Yoreo*. Tuning crystallization pathways through sequence engineering of biomimetic polymers. Nature Materials. 2017. 16: 767-774.
21. M. You; S. Yang; F. Jiao; L. Yang; F. Zhang; P. He*. Label-free electrochemical multi-sites recognition of G-rich DNA using multi-walled carbon nanotubes–supported molecularly imprinted polymer with guanine sites of DNA. Electrochimica Acta. 2016. 199: 133-141.
22. H. Fan; F. Jiao; H. Chen; F. Zhang; Q. Wang; P. He*; Y. Fang. Qualitative and quantitative detection of DNA amplified with HRP-modified SiO2 nanoparticles using scanning electrochemical microscopy. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 2013. 47: 373-378.
23. H. Fan; X. Wang; F. Jiao; F. Zhang; Q. Wang; P. He*; Y. Fang. Scanning electrochemical microscopy of DNA hybridization on DNA microarrays enhanced by HRP-modified SiO2 nanoparticles. Analytical Chemistry. 2013. 85(13): 6511-6517.
Contact:
Fang Jiao
Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics,
Institute of Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Email: fang.jiao@iphy.ac.cn
Tel：+86 01082649645
http://www.iop.cas.cn/rcjy/tpyjy/?id=4432
Mailing Address:
Fang Jiao
Tel:+86 01082649645
The Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
P.O.Box 603, Beijing, 100190, China
Email: fang.jiao@iphy.ac.cn
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