Pengwei Zhang, PhD

Department Affiliations
Assistant Professor

Interests
Virus-host interactions of intracellular virus trafficking.

Education and Training
BSc, Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, China, 1997
MSc, Medicine in Pathogenic Microorganism, School of Medicine, Wuhan University, China, 2001
PhD, Biology, Rensselaer Polytechic Institute, Troy, New York, 2015
Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 2020
Associate Research Scientist, Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 2021

National Activities
Member, American Society for Virology

Academic Service
Guest Editor, Pathogens, 2022-Present

Patent
Cell-penetrating peptides. DiMaio D, Zhang P, Monteiro da Silva G, and Weiya Bai. (In application)

Notable Publications
Xie J, Zhang P, Crite M, Lindsay C, DiMaio D. Retromer Stabilizes Transient Membrane Insertion of L2 Capsid Protein During Retrograde Entry of Human Papillomavirus. Sci. Adv. 2021. Jun 30; Vol. 7, no. 27, eabh4276.

Xie J, Zhang P, Crite M, DiMaio D. Papillomaviruses Go Retro. Pathogens. 2020; 9 (4), 267.

Zhang P, Moreno R, Lambert P, DiMaio D. Cell-penetrating peptide inhibits retromer-mediated human papillomavirus trafficking during virus entry. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 March 17; 117 (11) 6121-6128.

Zhang P, Monteiro da Silva G, Deatherage C, Burd C, and DiMaio D. Cell-penetrating Peptide Mediates Intracellular Membrane Passage of Human Papillomavirus L2 Protein to Trigger Retrograde Trafficking. Cell. 2018. Sep 6;174(6):1465-1476.e13.

Inoue T, Zhang P, Zhang W, Goodner-Bingham K, Dupzyk A, DiMaio D, and Tsai B. γ-Secretase promotes
membrane insertion of the human papillomavirus L2 capsid protein during virus infection. J Cell Biol. 2018 Oct 1;217(10):3545-3559.

Zhang P, Rayment I, Gilbert SP. Fast or Slow, Either Head Can Start the Processive Run of Kinesin-2 KIF3AC. J Biol Chem. 2016 Feb 26;291(9):4407-16.

Zhang P#, Dai W#, Hahn J, Gilbert SP. Drosophila Ncd reveals an evolutionarily conserved powerstroke mechanism for homodimeric and heterodimeric kinesin-14s. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 May 19; 112(20):6359-64.

Zhang P, Xie L, Balliet JW, Casimiro DR, Yao F. A herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) glycoprotein D-expressing nonreplicating dominant-negative HSV-2 virus vaccine is superior to a gD2 subunit vaccine against HSV-2 genital infection in guinea pigs. PLoS One. 2014 Jun 30; 9(6):e101373.

Akhrameyeva NV#, Zhang P#, Sugiyama N#, Behar SM, Yao F. Development of a glycoprotein D-expressing dominant-negative and replication-defective herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) recombinant viral vaccine against HSV-2 infection in mice. J Virol. 2011 May; 85(10):5036-47.

Xie J#, Zhang P#, Li C, Huang Q, Zhou R, Peng T. Mechanistic insights into the roles of three linked single-stranded template binding residues of MMLV reverse transcriptase in misincorporation and mispair extension fidelity of DNA synthesis. Gene. 2011 Jun 15; 479(1-2):47-56.

#Co-first author.