Prof. Yi-Quan Tang
Principal Investigator
Research Directions
Mechanobiology and diseases of mechanotransduction
Contact Information
Address: Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, 131 Dongan Road, Shanghai, China, 200032
Email：yqtang@fudan.edu.cn
Dr. Yi-Quan Tang received his Ph.D. degree in Neurobiology from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2013. He then worked as a Career Development Fellow in the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB, nicknamed ‘The Nobel Prize Factory’, has received 12 Nobel prizes shared amongst 17 researchers, including names such as Francis Crick & Jim Watson (DNA structure), César Milstein & Georges Köhler (monoclonal antibodies), Fred Sanger (protein sequencing & DNA sequencing), Sydney Brenner, Bob Horvitz & John Sulston (Caenorhabditis elegans) and Richard Henderson (cryo-EM)), Cambridge, UK, between 2014 and 2018. Since 2018, he was appointed as an Investigator Scientist, until he joined the Institutes of Brain Science and the State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology at Fudan University as a new group leader in January 2021. Dr. Tang’s honors and awards include Shanghai Program for High-Level Overseas Talents, the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning, and MRC End of Year SAS Award – Outstanding (2016, 2019). He has published a series of first- or corresponding-author papers in prestigious journals such as Neuron, Nature Communications, Cell Reports, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Biophysical Journal.
Enrollment Major
Neurobiology
Research Work
Living organisms sense mechanical forces from their internal and external environments through mechanotransduction, a process of converting mechanical stimuli into electrical and biochemical signals. For instance, our senses of hearing, touch, mechanical pain, balance and proprioception are all dependent on mechanotransduction ion channels. Diseases associated with deficits in mechanotransduction include deafness, mechanical pain, arteriosclerosis, cardiac myopathies, defects in bone and cartilage, et al. Despite the vital role of mechanotransduction in a wide variety of biological functions, many questions remain concerning the identities of molecules underlying mechanotransduction and the mechanisms through which they respond to mechanical force. My lab wishes to build an integrated, multi-disciplinary program that combines biophysical, cellular and whole animal approaches to unravel fundamental mechanisms of mechanotransduction and also contribute to novel approaches for treating various diseases associated with disturbed mechanotransduction signalling.
Selected Publications
1. Tang YQ*, Lee SA, Rahman M, Vanapalli SA, Lu H, Schafer WR* (2020). Ankyrins is an intracellular tether for TMC mechanotransduction channels. Neuron. 107(1): 112-125
2. Hu F#, Zhou J#, Lu Y#, Guan L, Wei NN, Tang YQ*, Wang K* (2019). Inhibition of Hsp70 Suppresses Neuronal Hyperexcitability and Attenuates Epilepsy by Enhancing A-Type Potassium Current. Cell Reports. 26(1): 168-181
3. Giese APJ#, Tang YQ#, Sinha GP, Bowl MR, Goldring AC, Parker A, Freeman MJ, Brown SDM, Riazuddin S, Fettiplace R, Schafer WR, Frolenkov GI*, Ahmed ZM* (2017). CIB2 interacts with TMC1 and TMC2 and is essential for mechanotransduction in auditory hair cells. Nature Communications. 8(1): 43
4. Tang YQ, Zhou JH, Yang F, Zheng J, Wang K* (2014). The tetramerization domain potentiates Kv4 channel function by suppressing closed-state inactivation. Biophys J. 107(5): 1090-1104
5. Tang YQ, Liang P, Zhou J, Lu Y, Lei L, Bian X, Wang K* (2013). Auxiliary KChIP4a Suppresses A-type K+ Current through ER Retention and Promoting Closed-state Inactivation of Kv4 channels.J Biol Chem. 288(21): 14727-14741
