Jun Zhang

Jun Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he has been employed since 2016. His research focuses on the structural and functional roles of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), particularly in RNA-binding proteins and phosphorylation-regulated mechanisms.

• Education: PhD in Biochemistry/Biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011); Master’s in Protein Spectroscopy from Tsinghua University.
• Research Interests: Structural analysis of IDPs, RNA-protein interactions, spliceosome assembly, and applications of NMR, crystallography, and SAXS to study dynamic systems. His work bridges biophysics and molecular biology to elucidate regulatory mechanisms in cellular processes and diseases.
• Recent Publications: 15 peer-reviewed articles (2009–2025) on topics like phosphorylation-driven spliceosome regulation, electronegative cluster effects on RNA binding, and advanced methods for protein purification and biophysical analysis.
• Grants: Funded by NIH R35 (2022) and NSF MCB (2020) for studies on RNA splicing and protein dynamics.
• Students & Mentoring: Advises PhD candidates and postdocs including Talia Fargason, Trent Paul, and Steve Zaharias, with notable achievements in splicing factor research and biophysical assays.
• Professional Activities: Reviewer for journals like Nucleic Acids Research and Protein & Cell; presented at the Frontiers of NMR in Life Sciences (2017).