Zhenling Cui

Dr Zhenling Cui is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), affiliated with the School of Biology & Environmental Science in the Faculty of Science. She completed her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland (2016) under Professor Kirill Alexandrov, receiving the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research. Her research focuses on protein engineering, synthetic biology, and genetic code expansion, with applications in peptide drug development and biosensor construction. Cui’s current work includes establishing in vitro display platforms for constrained peptide discovery and adapting codon reassignment methodologies to eukaryotic systems.

• Education: Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Sciences (University of Queensland, 2016)

Research Interests: Cui’s expertise lies in manipulating the genetic code to incorporate non-canonical amino acids into proteins. Her work bridges fundamental biochemistry and applied biotechnology, aiming to produce novel therapeutic agents like antibody drug conjugates and biosensors. Recent efforts involve leveraging lyophilized eukaryotic cell-free systems for scalable protein synthesis.

Publications: Her work spans protein engineering, synthetic biology, and virology, with recent contributions to lanthanide-controlled protein switches and SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction studies. Key themes include codon reassignment, mRNA display pipelines, and therapeutically relevant peptide prototyping.

• Awards: Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research (2016)

Grants & Supervision: Co-supervisor for a PhD project on protein biosensors for heart failure diagnostics. Active in collaborative projects funded by Australian biomedical research programs.

Labs/Teams: Works within QUT’s Synthetic Biology and Cell-Free Systems research groups, contributing to interdisciplinary projects in biotechnology and healthcare.