Ning Zheng, Ph.D.

Dr. Zheng is a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Ning Zheng seeks to understand the intricate interactions and coordinated functions of proteins and signaling molecules found in plants and animals, including humans. Using a structural biology approach, Zheng and his team conduct studies that span several interwoven research areas, including ubiquitination, transcription, plant biology, ion channels, circadian clocks, and drug discovery. Their overarching goal is to apply the underlying biological principles they learn to the development of novel therapeutics as well as to the planet’s ecological balance. Dr. Zheng pioneered the concept of Molecular Glue with his determination of the mechanism of action of the plant hormones auxin and jasmonate. Moreover, utilizing over 20 years’ experience discovering the structural biology of ubiquitin ligases, Ning demonstrated the potential to utilize high throughput screening of small molecule libraries to discover molecules that can induce productive protein-protein interaction between a ubiquitin ligase and a protein being targeted for degradation.