Research Scientist, Webb Laboratory, Medicinal & Synthetic Chemistry
Wei Zhou, Ph.D., is a biologist with more than seven years of industry experience, including hands-on expertise in assay development of biochemical and cell-based assays, and in designing and executing high-throughput screening campaigns. She also has experience in managing large sets of biological data using database software.
Zhou joined SRI in 2006 as a postdoctoral fellow, and became a research scientist in 2008. Currently, she is developing and performing preclinical biological assays to support in-house and commercial drug discovery and development projects such as SRI’s development of influenza RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) inhibitors under funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Zhou’s postdoctoral fellowship was performed at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Roger Nicoll, Ph.D. She completed her Ph.D. study in the laboratory of Dr. Alan L. Goldin at the University of California, Irvine. Earlier, she was a research fellow at Peking University, where she also earned her BSc in biochemistry and molecular biology.
She is the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed publications, as well as poster presentations and conference proceedings.
Recent publications
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Identification and characterization of influenza variants resistant to a viral endonuclease inhibitor
The influenza endonuclease is an essential subdomain of the viral RNA polymerase. It processes host pre-mRNAs to serve as primers for viral mRNA and is an attractive target for antiinfluenza drug discovery.
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Pharmacological Characterization of GPR120 Ligands
The goal of the current study was to understand GPR120 ligand selectivity by testing agonist activity of various fatty acids in cell based assays to measure G-protein activated second messengers, β-arrestin recruitment and inhibition of cytokine production.
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SR16388 Impairs Protein Homeostasis and Induces Autophagy in Diverse Human Cancer Cell Lines
SR16388 is a novel amino steroid that targets estrogen-binding proteins including genomic estrogen receptors.