Dr. Peng Zou focuses on the development and application of chemistry-enabled tools to study neuroscience. They strive to understand how neuronal functions arise through the complex interactions between physical forces, ionic fluxes, and biological macromolecules. To achieve this goal, they invent new methods to probe the underlying molecules in the context of living cells.  Examples are fluorescent sensors, engineered enzymes, custom-built microscopes and software, etc. Their methods are drawing from a wide range of techniques, including protein engineering, molecular biology, chemical synthesis, fluorescence microscopy and quantitative modeling.  Research projects include: Optical mapping of neuronal action potential waveforms. Proteomic mapping of protein-RNA interactions in the process of learning and memory.  Novel probes for recording circuit-level activities.

Dr. Zou received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, with a double major in Physics from Peking University in 2007, and his PhD in Biological Chemistry from MIT in 2012.  He then joined Adam Cohen's group at Harvard University as a postdoc fellow, before returning to PKU as an Assistant Professor in College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering in 2015.  He was also appointed as a Principal Investigator at the Center for Life Sciences and the IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

For more information, please visit Dr. Peng Zou's website: 

http://mgv.pku.edu.cn/?co=posts&ac=faculty&catalog=enpiintro&pname=en_Peng_Zou