Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2010

Mentors: Helen Hobbs & Jonathan Cohen
Department: McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development
Room number: NB10.102
a) Mail Code: 8591
Phone number: 85505
E-mail: feng.jiang@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Investigation of the molecular mechanism of mitochondrial pyruvate uptake

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Project Type (basic research); this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Brief Description of Project:

We have previously characterized a metabolic disease with exercise intolerance. The patients presented with very high level of serum pyruvate after a short period of exercising. Through collaboration with the lab of Dr. Ralph Deberardinis, we have established an ex vivo assay for detecting intermediates in the glucose metabolism pathway. We discovered that the fibroblasts from the patients showed profound defect in mitochondrial pyruvate uptake.

Through whole genome and exome sequencing and expression array analysis, we would like to identify potential candidate genes and test their ability to rescue the defect in mitochondrial pyruvate uptake via lentiviral expressional vectors in the established fibroblast cell lines.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

10/2008-08/2009 Postdoctoral Research
Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth & Development, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Mentors: Drs. Helen H. Hobbs and Jonathan C. Cohen
" Establishment of a new assay system for detecting and profiling circulating microRNAs in human plasma.
" Profiling of a common allele on Chromosome 9 associated with coronary heart disease in Dallas Heart Study, a population-based study.

01/2004-09/2008 Graduate Research
Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Mentor: Dr. Qinghua Liu
" Doctorate dissertation on biochemical analysis of RNA interference pathways in Drosophila.
" Purification of active recombinant Drosophila Argonaute 2 and in vitro reconstitution of RNA interference.
" Identification and functional characterization of Loquacious - a novel double-stranded RNA binding protein in Drosophila.
" Functional characterization of R2D2 - a double-stranded RNA binding protein in Drosophila.

03/2000-12/2003 Undergraduate Research
Department of Plant Molecular and Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Peking University
Mentor: Dr. Keming Cui
" Undergraduate thesis on Cytological and Biochemical Mechanisms of Differentiation and Dedifferentiation of the secondary xylem in Populus tomentosa Carr. The Thesis won "Excellent Graduate Thesis" out of 140 ones in College of Life Sciences, Peking University.

Publications

1. Ying Liu, Xuecheng Ye, Feng Jiang, Chunyang Liang, Dongmei Chen, Junmin Peng, Lisa N. Kinch, Nick V. Grishin and Qinghua Liu (2009). C3PO, an endoribonuclease that promotes RNAi by facilitating RISC activation. Science, accepted.

2. Xiang Liu, Joseph K. Park, Feng Jiang, Ying Liu, Dennis McKearin and Qinghua Liu (2007). Dicer-1, but not Loquacious, is critical for assembly of miRNA-induced silencing complexes. RNA 13, 2324-2329.

3. Xiang Liu, Feng Jiang, Savitha Kalidas, Dean Smith and Qinghua Liu (2006). Dicer-2 and R2D2 coordinately bind siRNA to promote assembly of the siRISC complexes. RNA 12(8), 1514-20.

4. Feng Jiang*, Xuecheng Ye*, Xiang Liu, Lauren Fincher, Dennis McKearin and Qinghua Liu. (2005). Dicer-1 and R3D1-L catalyze microRNA maturation in Drosophila. Genes Dev 19(14), 1674-1679. (* equal contribution)

5. Jing Cao, Feng Jiang, Sodmergen and Keming Cui. (2003). Time-course of programmed cell death during leaf senescence in Eucommia ulmoides. J Plant Res 116(1), 7-12.

Awards and Honors

11/2006-09/2008: Recipient of Sara and Frank McKnight Fund for Biomedical Research Fellowship, Department of Biochemistry, UT Southwestern.
10/2006: Abstract award for meritorious research in the biomedical sciences presented in the 38th Annual Sigma Xi Research Forum, Graduate School of Basic Science, UT Southwestern.
03/2000-07/2002: Chun-Tsung Scholarship, supervised by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (New York), Peking University;
07/2001: Guanghua Scholarship, Peking University;
07/2000: Honor of Excellent Academic Performance, Peking University.

Professional Association

2007-2008 Associate Member
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

Honored Oral Presentation

"Dicer-1 and R3D1-L catalyze microRNA maturation in Drosophila." Cold Spring Harbor Meeting - RNAi, 09/28-10/02, 2005.