Lei Zhou,
Professor
Department:
Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
Business Phone:
(352) 273-8169
Business Email:
leizhou@ufl.edu
About Lei Zhou
Our studies use the fruit fly to unravel the complexity of innate immunity. Our lab has studied the innate immune response against arbovirus infection, which spreads through an intermediate host, such as mosquitos. We revealed an important innate immune response to be rapid apoptosis, a well-contained form of cell death that often requires the expression of pro-apoptotic genes. Genetic research in fruit flies has revealed that a group of pro-apoptotic genes play a pivotal role in regulating apoptosis in insects. Using advanced bioinformatics strategies, we have identified several reaper/grim-like genes in mosquito genomes. These insights may be key to curbing viral infections spread by mosquitoes. Led by serendipitous findings, we are now interested in understanding how innate immunity becomes dysregulated in aging animals and the interaction between innate immunity and cancer.
Related Links:
Teaching Profile
Courses Taught
2006-2013,2015-2025
GMS6014 Applications of Bioinformatics to Genetics
2014-2015,2017-2020
GMS6065 Fundamentals of Cancer Biology
2009-2010,2012-2017,2015-2022,2017-2024,2019-2024,2021-2024
GMS6232 Advanced Applications of Bioinformatics in Genetics
2016-2019
GMS6001 Fundamentals of Biomedical Sciences I
2018
GMS7980 Research for Doctoral Dissertation
2018
GMS7979 Advanced Research
2018
MCB7979 Advanced Research
2015-2017
GMS6895 CTS Journal Club
2012-2016
GMS6920 Genetics Journal Colloquy
2016
GMS6644 Apoptosis
2007
GMS6181 Spec Topics Microbiol
Research Profile
Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)
0000-0001-8251-3974
Publications
Academic Articles
2023
Screening of Drosophila microRNA-degradation sequences reveals Argonaute1 mRNA’s role in regulating miR-999
Nature Communications.
14(1)
[DOI] 10.1038/s41467-023-37819-9.
[PMID] 37055443.
2022
Human Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Suppresses NF-κB Activity and Extends Lifespan in Adult Drosophila
Biomolecules.
12(10)
[DOI] 10.3390/biom12101347.
[PMID] 36291555.
2022
The TP53 Database: transition from the International Agency for Research on Cancer to the US National Cancer Institute
Cell Death & Differentiation.
29(5):1071-1073
[DOI] 10.1038/s41418-022-00976-3.
[PMID] 35352025.
2021
Clustered rapid induction of apoptosis limits ZIKV and DENV-2 proliferation in the midguts of Aedes aegypti
Communications Biology.
4(1)
[DOI] 10.1038/s42003-020-01614-9.
[PMID] 33452408.
2019
A Cut/cohesin axis alters the chromatin landscape to facilitate neuroblast death.
Development (Cambridge, England).
146(9)
[DOI] 10.1242/dev.166603.
[PMID] 30952666.
2019
P53 and Apoptosis in the Drosophila Model.
Advances in experimental medicine and biology.
1167:105-112
[DOI] 10.1007/978-3-030-23629-8_6.
[PMID] 31520351.
2018
Anti-inflammaging effects of human alpha-1 antitrypsin.
Aging cell.
17(1)
[DOI] 10.1111/acel.12694.
[PMID] 29045001.
2017
Printing-Induced Cell Injury Evaluation During Laser Printing of 3T3 Mouse Fibroblasts
Biofabrication.
9(2)
[DOI] 10.1088/1758-5090/aa6ed9.
2017
Significantly mutated genes and regulatory pathways in SCLC-a meta-analysis.
Cancer genetics.
216-217:20-28
[DOI] 10.1016/j.cancergen.2017.05.003.
[PMID] 29025592.
2016
HoxBlinc RNA Recruits Set1/MLL Complexes to Activate Hox Gene Expression Patterns and Mesoderm Lineage Development.
Cell reports.
14(1):103-114
[DOI] 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.007.
[PMID] 26725110.
2016
Integrating Domain Specific Knowledge and Network Analysis to Predict Drug Sensitivity of Cancer Cell Lines.
PloS one.
11(9)
[DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0162173.
[PMID] 27607242.
2016
Setd1a and NURF mediate chromatin dynamics and gene regulation during erythroid lineage commitment and differentiation.
Nucleic acids research.
44(15):7173-88
[DOI] 10.1093/nar/gkw327.
[PMID] 27141965.
2015
An intergenic regulatory region mediates Drosophila Myc-induced apoptosis and blocks tissue hyperplasia.
Oncogene.
34(18):2385-97
[DOI] 10.1038/onc.2014.160.
[PMID] 24931167.
2015
Corp Regulates P53 in Drosophila melanogaster via a Negative Feedback Loop.
PLoS genetics.
11(7)
[DOI] 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005400.
[PMID] 26230084.
2015
Differential Temporal Effects of Sclerostin Antibody and Parathyroid Hormone on Cancellous and Cortical Bone and Quantitative Differences in Effects on the Osteoblast Lineage in Young Intact Rats
Bone.
81:380-391
[DOI] 10.1016/j.bone.2015.08.007.
[PMID] 26261096.
2015
Pro-apoptotic gene regulation and its activation by gamma-irradiation in the Caribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha suspensa.
Apoptosis : an international journal on programmed cell death.
20(1):1-9
[DOI] 10.1007/s10495-014-1055-3.
[PMID] 25433919.
2015
STIP is a critical nuclear scaffolding protein linking USP7 to p53-Mdm2 pathway regulation.
Oncotarget.
6(33):34718-31
[DOI] 10.18632/oncotarget.5303.
[PMID] 26460617.
2014
hSETD1A regulates Wnt target genes and controls tumor growth of colorectal cancer cells.
Cancer research.
74(3):775-86
[DOI] 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-13-1400.
[PMID] 24247718.
2014
Leveraging biological replicates to improve analysis in ChIP-seq experiments.
Computational and structural biotechnology journal.
9
[DOI] 10.5936/csbj.201401002.
[PMID] 24688750.
2013
Genome-wide identification of chromatin transitional regions reveals diverse mechanisms defining the boundary of facultative heterochromatin.
PloS one.
8(6)
[DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0067156.
[PMID] 23840609.
2013
P53-mediated rapid induction of apoptosis conveys resistance to viral infection in Drosophila melanogaster.
PLoS pathogens.
9(2)
[DOI] 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003137.
[PMID] 23408884.
2013
The malignant brain tumor (MBT) domain protein SFMBT1 is an integral histone reader subunit of the LSD1 demethylase complex for chromatin association and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.
The Journal of biological chemistry.
288(38):27680-27691
[DOI] 10.1074/jbc.M113.482349.
[PMID] 23928305.
2012
(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Sensitizes Human Promyelocytic Hl-60 Cells To X-Ray Irradiation and Alters Expression of Pro-Apoptotic Genes
The FASEB's Journal.
26
2012
C-Scan Photoacoustic Microscopy for in Vivo Imaging of Drosophila Pupae
Applied Physics Letters.
101(1)
[DOI] 10.1063/1.4732797.
2011
A barrier-only boundary element delimits the formation of facultative heterochromatin in Drosophila melanogaster and vertebrates.
Molecular and cellular biology.
31(13):2729-41
[DOI] 10.1128/MCB.05165-11.
[PMID] 21518956.
2011
Extra sex combs, chromatin, and cancer: exploring epigenetic regulation and tumorigenesis in Drosophila.
Journal of genetics and genomics = Yi chuan xue bao.
38(10):453-60
[DOI] 10.1016/j.jgg.2011.09.007.
[PMID] 22035866.
2011
In vivo monitoring of stem cells in Drosophila pupae using the radiative transfer equation-based fluorescence molecular tomography.
Molecular imaging and biology.
13(5):868-73
[DOI] 10.1007/s11307-010-0434-6.
[PMID] 20922571.
2011
Induction of reaper ortholog mx in mosquito midgut cells following baculovirus infection.
Cell death and differentiation.
18(8):1337-45
[DOI] 10.1038/cdd.2011.8.
[PMID] 21331076.
2010
Emergency Department Care in Evaluation of Nursing Home Patients
Journal of Investigative Medicine.
58
2010
Silencing of PTK7 in colon cancer cells: caspase-10-dependent apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway.
PloS one.
5(11)
[DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0014018.
[PMID] 21103379.
2010
Split Bond Ratings and Information Opacity Premiums
Financial Management.
39:515-532
2009
A lepidopteran orthologue of reaper reveals functional conservation and evolution of IAP antagonists.
Insect molecular biology.
18(3):341-51
[DOI] 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2009.00878.x.
[PMID] 19523066.
2009
By design or by chance: cell death during Drosophila embryogenesis.
Apoptosis : an international journal on programmed cell death.
14(8):935-42
[DOI] 10.1007/s10495-009-0360-8.
[PMID] 19466551.
2009
Glioblastoma proto-oncogene SEC61gamma is required for tumor cell survival and response to endoplasmic reticulum stress.
Cancer research.
69(23):9105-11
[DOI] 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-2775.
[PMID] 19920201.
2008
Drosophila muscleblind is involved in troponin T alternative splicing and apoptosis.
PloS one.
3(2)
[DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0001613.
[PMID] 18286170.
2008
Epigenetic blocking of an enhancer region controls irradiation-induced proapoptotic gene expression in Drosophila embryos.
Developmental cell.
14(4):481-93
[DOI] 10.1016/j.devcel.2008.01.018.
[PMID] 18410726.
2008
RAX is required for fly neuronal development and mouse embryogenesis.
Mechanisms of development.
125(9-10):777-85
[DOI] 10.1016/j.mod.2008.06.009.
[PMID] 18634873.
2007
BLISS 2.0: a web-based tool for predicting conserved regulatory modules in distantly-related orthologous sequences.
Bioinformatics (Oxford, England).
23(23):3249-50
[PMID] 17660203.
2006
BLISS: binding site level identification of shared signal-modules in DNA regulatory sequences.
BMC bioinformatics.
7
[PMID] 16756683.
2006
Expression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa toxin ExoS effectively induces apoptosis in host cells.
Infection and immunity.
74(12):6557-70
[PMID] 16966406.
2005
Michelob_x is the missing inhibitor of apoptosis protein antagonist in mosquito genomes.
EMBO reports.
6(8):769-74
[PMID] 16041319.
2005
The ‘unique key’ feature of the Iap-binding motifs in RHG proteins.
Cell death and differentiation.
12(8):1148-51
[PMID] 15905883.
2003
Distinct pathways mediate UV-induced apoptosis in Drosophila embryos.
Developmental cell.
4(4):599-605
[PMID] 12689597.
2003
JXP4BIGI: a generalized, Java XML-based approach for biological information gathering and integration.
Bioinformatics (Oxford, England).
19(18):2351-8
[PMID] 14668218.
2003
Molecular mechanisms of irradiation-induced apoptosis.
Frontiers in bioscience : a journal and virtual library.
8:d9-19
[PMID] 12456331.
2002
Drosophila sickle is a novel grim-reaper cell death activator.
Current biology : CB.
12(2):131-5
[PMID] 11818064.
Grants
Feb 2020
ACTIVE
OR-DRPD-UFLIPS-G-2019 Understanding the Functional mechanism of hAAT in Drosophila
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: L&L BIOTECHNOLOGY
Jan 2018
– Dec 2021
An Imputation-Consistency Algorithm for Biomedical Complex Data Analysis
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: PURDUE UNIV
via NATL INST OF HLTH NIGMS
Jan 2015
– Dec 2018
The regulation of cell death in vivo
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
via NATL INST OF HLTH NIGMS
Jul 2014
– Jan 2016
Seed Grant- "Integrating Omics Data with Domain Specific Knowledge for Predicting Cellular Sensitivity to Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy"
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: *UF INFORMATICS INSTITUTE
Jan 2014
– Mar 2019
Rapid Induction of apoptosis against viral infection
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: NATL INST OF HLTH NIGMS
Contact Details
Phones:
- Business:
- (352) 273-8169
Emails:
- Business:
- leizhou@ufl.edu
Addresses:
- Business Mailing:
-
PO BOX 103633
GAINESVILLE FL 326100001 - Business Street:
-
PO BOX 103610
PO BOX 103610
1376 MOWRY RD
GAINESVILLE FL 326110001