Indi Zang Earns American Heart Association Student Fellowship
Tianzhu "Indi" Zang, a third-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Barnett Institute of Chemical Biology, recently won a two-year predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association for his project entitled "Protein Modifications and Crosslinking by Homocysteine Thiolactone in Cardiovascular Diseases."
Homocysteine thiolactone is a metabolite in humans. Elevated blood levels of homocysteine ("hyperhomocysteinemia") have been linked to cardiovascular diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders and other conditions. However, its etiology remains elusive. Indi's project thus is to test the hypothesis that protein modification by homocysteine thiolactone may be a significant contributing factor to the pathophysiology of homocysteine-related diseases. A key component of his work is to devise new chemical methods for the selective detection of proteins modified by homocysteine thiolactone for his ongoing proteomic analysis and biomarker discovery.
Indi obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in biochemistry from Jilin University in Changchun, China. Since coming to Northeastern University in 2007, Indi has focused his research on the characterization of various protein modifications, particularly the development of novel detection methods; he has already co-authored two publications and submitted a third as first author. In 2008, his research achievements were recognized by the Gustel and Ernst Giessen Memorial Award from the Barnett Institute. Professor Zhaohui Sunny Zhou, his research advisor, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and a Faculty Fellow in the Barnett Institute.