Illuminating Cellular Signaling

Abstract

he intracellular environment is an incredibly dynamic place, with new signaling molecules being born, dying, interacting, and transforming every minute. However, the roles and actions of many of a cell's signaling molecules remain a mystery. If researchers could light up the dark and shrouded inner environment of a cell, then they could observe cellular signaling in real time. This goal is the focus of work by Jin Zhang of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and her colleagues. Zhang's team has created several fluorescent sensors that give a visual element to the action of intracellular signaling molecules; as they move inside cells, the sensors allow researchers to track and monitor particular signaling events. By shining this spotlight on cellular signaling molecules, Zhang's work is giving unprecedented insight into signal transduction events inside living cells.In the Family. Zhang was born in 1972 in Beijing, China, to parents who were both engineering professors at Tsinghua University. Her parents encouraged her and her older sister, Qing Zhang, to follow their own interests, including writing stories and reading from the family's personal minilibrary of Chinese literature classics and science fiction books.However, notes Zhang, "Science and engineering run in the family, and the family influence was pretty strong." She recalls many dinner discussions during her childhood that focused on why natural phenomena occur. If her parents couldn't answer her or her sister's questions, they encouraged the children to find solutions in books, through logical thinking, or by experimentation. "It became a fun thing to ask why and look for answers. That got me interested in science as a career," says Zhang.