Biography Shuguang Zhang is the Associate Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of California at Santa Barbara. He received his B.S. from Sichuan University in China. He was a past American Cancer Society Fellow at MIT. He is a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua (Qinghua) University in Beijing and at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. He is a consultant for Acorda Therapeutics in New York; and a Scientific Advisor for Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Research Center in Yokohama, Japan. He is members of AAAS, American Society of Biochemistry and molecular Biology (ASBMB), The Human Genome Organization Americas (HUGO), the Protein Society, New York Academy of Sciences, The International Society for the Study of Origin of Life (ISSOL) and the honorary society of Sigma Xi.   Research Interests Biological self-assembly systems lie at the interface between molecular biology, chemistry, materials science and engineering. The key elements in molecular self-assembly are chemical complementarity and structural compatibility. Several distinctive types of peptides have been developed. Type I peptides undergo intermolecular self-assembly to form a gel matrix that can be used for as a scaffold tissue engineering. Type II peptides undergo structural transformations for intermolecular and intramolecular self-assembly. Analysis of the molecular switch will provide us insight into the onset of protein conformational diseases. Type III peptides undergo self-assembly on to surfaces to form molecular hook and molecular Volcro that interact with other molecules and to control cell patterns. Type IV peptides undergo assembly with nucleic acids to promote gene delivery. The self-assembling peptide systems are simple, versatile and easy to produce. These systems represent a significant advancement in the molecular engineering of protein fragments for diverse technological innovations.   Selected Publications 1. Zhang, S., Holmes, T., Lockshin, C. & Rich, A (1993), Spontaneous assembly of a self-complementary oligopeptide to form a stable macroscopic membrane. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 3334-3338. 2. Shuguang Zhang and Martin Egli (1995) A proposed complementary pairing mode between single-stranded nucleic acids and b-stranded peptides: A possible pathway for generating complex biological molecules. Complexity 1, 49-56. 3. Zhang, S., Holmes, T., DiPersio, M., Hynes, R. O., Su, X., & Rich, A (1995) Self-complementary oligopeptide matrices support mammalian cell attachment. Biomaterials 16, 1385-1393. 4. Zhang, S & Rich, A. (1997) Direct conversion of an oligopeptide from a b-sheet to an a-helix: A Model for amyloid formation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 23-28. 5. Zhang, S., Yan, L. Altman, M., Lassle, M., Nugent, H., Frankel, F., Lauffenburger, D., Whitesides, G. W. & Rich, A. (1999) Biological surface engineering: A simple system for cell pattern formation. Biomaterials (In press).