After  graduating from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of  Biochemistry in 2000, Dr. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National  Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National  Institutes of Health in Maryland. While there, he studied the mechanism of  steroid hormone receptor-regulated gene expression, specifically the  glucocorticoid receptor (GR). In 2008, Dr. He was recruited to Van Andel  Research Institute to work on drug discovery for the glucocorticoid receptor and  structural basis of G-coupled protein receptors (GPCRs) signaling. In 2014, Dr.  He became a research assistant professor at Van Andel Research Institute. During  this period, Dr. He discovered a crosstalk between lysosomal pathway and  glucocorticoid signaling, designed and developed novel glucocorticoids for  asthma treatment, made major contribution to the rhodopsin/arrestin complex  structure, and identified key mechanism for rhodopsin/GRK1 engagement. Dr. He  joins the School of Life Sciences and Technology of the Harbin Institute of  Technology in November 2017.

Research Interests

Dr.  He’s research interests are hormone receptor signaling and the related  translational studies, focusing on steroid hormone receptors (i.e. the  glucocorticoid receptor, GR) and the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The  overall research goal of Dr. He is to use cutting edge structural biology tools,  including the emerging cryo-electron microscopy (EM), to explore the molecular  detail, including those at the atomic level, of receptor signaling and use it to  design precision medicines that specifically deliver the desired treatment  effects, but not the unwanted side effects, to  patients.

Techniques and Tools in the Lab

      Protein expression and purification, protein crystallization, structure  determination,Cryo-EM,  small molecule design, animal model of inflammatory diseases, molecular biology  and cellular biology techniques

Selected Publications

Dr.  He has published more than 20 peer review papers, including Cell, Nature,  Science, Cell Research, PNAS, Genes & Development, Science Signaling. Below  is selected publication of Dr. He.

1. Yang Lu*, X. Edward Zhou*, Xiang Gao, Na Wang, Ruixue Xia, Zhenmei Xu, Yu Leng, Yuying Shi, Guangfu Wang, Karsten Melcher, H. Eric Xu & Yuanzheng He^#. Crystal structure of heliorhodopsin 48C12.Cell Res.2020 30:88-90. 

2.Yuanzheng He*^#, Jingjing Shi*, Quang Tam Nguyen*, Erli You, Hongbo Liu, Xin Ren, Zhongshan Wu, Jianshuang Li, Wenli Qiu, Sok Kean Khoo, Tao Yang, Wei Yi, Feng Sun, Zhijian Xi, Xiaozhu Huang, Karsten Melcher, Booki Min^#, and H. Eric Xu^#. Development of highly potent glucocorticoids for steroid-resistant severe asthma. PNAS. 2019 116 (14): 6932-6937.

3.Zhou  XE*,He  Y*,  de Waal PW*, Gao X*, Van Eps N, Yin Y, Pal K, Goswami D, White TA, Barty A,  Latorraca NR, Chapman HN, Hubbell WL, Dror RO, Stevens RC, Cherezov V, Gurevich  VV, Griffin PR, Ernst OP, Melcher K, Xu HE. Identification of Phosphorylation  Codes for Arrestin Recruitment by G Protein-Coupled  Receptors.Cell,  2017 Jul 27;170(3):457-469.e13. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.07.002. *, contribute  equally, co-first author. Cover article of Cell v170.

4.He  Y#,  Gao X, Goswami D， Hou  L, Pal K, Yin Y, Zhao G, Ernst O.P, Griffin P, Melcher K, Xu HE#. Molecular  Assembly of Rhodopsin with G-Protein Coupled Receptor  Kinases.Cell  Res.  2017 Jun;27(6):728-747. doi: 10.1038/cr.2017.72. #, corresponding  author.

5.Yin  Y, de Waal PW,He  Y,  Zhao LH, Yang D, Cai X, Jiang Y, Melcher K, Wang MW, Xu HE. Rearrangement of a  polar core provides a conserved mechanism for constitutive activation of class B  G protein-coupled receptors.J  Biol Chem.  2017; 292(24):9865-9881.

6.Ma  H, Duan J, Ke J,He  Y,  Gu X, Xu TH, Yu H, Wang Y, Brunzelle JS, Jiang Y, Rothbart SB, Xu HE, Li J,  Melcher K. A D53 repression motif induces oligomerization of TOPLESS  corepressors and promotes assembly of a corepressor-nucleosome  complex.Science  advances.  2017; 3(6):e1601217.

7.Kang  Y*, Zhou XE*, Gao X*,He  Y*,  Liu W, Ishchenko A, …Stevens RC, Cherezov V, Melcher K, Xu HE. Crystal structure  of rhodopsin bound to arrestin determined by femtosecond X-ray  laser.Nature.  2015 Jul 30;523(7562):561-7. *, contribute equally, co-first  author.

8.He  Y#, Shi  J, Yi W, Ren X, Gao X, Li J, Wu N, Weaver K, Xie Q, Khoo SK, Yang T, Huang X,  Melcher K and Xu HE#. Discovery of a highly potent glucocorticoid for asthma  treatment.Cell  Disc 2015,  1. pii: 15035. #, corresponding author.

9.Zhi  X, Zhou XE,He  Y,  Searose-Xu K, Zhang CL, Tsai CC, Melcher K, Xu HE. Structural basis for  corepressor assembly by the orphan nuclear receptor TLX.Genes  Dev. 2015  Feb 15;29(4):440-50.

10.He  Y#,  Yi W, Suino-Powell K, Zhou XE, Tolbert WD, Tang X, Yang J, Yang H, Shi J, Hou L,  Jiang H, Melcher K, Xu HE#. Structures and mechanism for the design of highly  potent glucocorticoids.Cell  Res.  2014 Jun;24(6):713-26. #, corresponding author.

11.Zhi  X, Zhou XE,He  Y,  Zechner C, Suino-Powell KM, Kliewer SA, Melcher K, Mangelsdorf DJ, Xu HE.  Structural insights into gene repression by the orphan nuclear receptor  SHP.Proc  Natl Acad Sci U S A.  2014 Jan 14;111(2):839-44.

12.Jiang  L, Liu X, Xiong G, Liu H, Chen F, Wang L,He  Y.  et al. DWARF 53 acts as a repressor of strigolactone signaling in  rice.Nature,  2013, 504: 401-405.

13.Soon  FF, Ng LM, Zhou XE, West GM, Kovach A, Tan MHE, Suino-Power  KM,He  Y,  Xu Y, .Mecher K, Xu HE. Molecular mimicry regulates ABA signaling by SnRK2  kinases and PP2C phosphatases.Science. 2012  Jan 6;335(6064):85-8.

14.He  Y#,  Xu Y, Zhang C, Gao X, Dykema KJ, Martin KR, Ke J, Hudson EA, Khoo SK, Resau JH,  Alberts AS, MacKeigan JP, Furge KA, Xu HE#. Identification of a lysosomal  pathway that modulates glucocorticoid signaling and the inflammatory  response.Sci  Signal.  2011 Jul 5;4(180):ra44. Cover article. #, corresponding  author.

Dr. He’s complete list of publications:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1pIU20J-oyuAY/bibliography/47447705/public/?sort=date&direction=descending