Institute of Metabolism and Integrative Biology · Fudan University · Est. 2019

Zhao Laboratory

The lab investigates the molecular mechanisms of metabolic disease, with a focus on how protein palmitoylation regulates fatty acid uptake and how transcriptional regulators determine adipocyte fate.

01 /Research focus

Two related questions in lipid metabolism: how DHHC enzymes attach fatty acids to substrate proteins, and how transcriptional regulators commit precursor cells to specific adipocyte fates.

/01

Protein Palmitoyl Transferase

Lipid post-translational modification

We map how DHHC family enzymes attach long-chain fatty acids to specific cysteines, and how that single chemical event rewrites metabolic signaling, organelle targeting, and insulin response in vivo.

DHHCPalmitoylationLipid signaling
/02

Adipocyte Differentiation

Master regulators of fat cell identity

We identify and characterize transcription factors and epigenetic regulators that decide whether a precursor commits to beige, white, or brown adipose, with the long-term goal of redirecting fat storage in disease.

AdipogenesisBeige fatTranscription factors
03 /Team
/PI

Tongjin Zhao

Professor
Institute of Metabolism and Integrative Biology
Fudan University

NSFC Distinguished Young Scholar · 2022

The laboratory studies the physiology and molecular mechanisms of metabolic diseases, with current work focused on tissue-specific fatty acid uptake, storage, and utilization.

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