Zhixin Chen

OBJECTIVE:
A challenging Scientist position in an industrial setting that calls for experie
nce in Protein Biochemistry.
SUMMARY:
* Extensive experience in protein over-expression and purification.
* Hands-on a set of biophysical, biochemical and molecular methods.
* Highly motivated with positive attitude, able to work both independently and a
s part of a group to design and carry out experiments.
* Fast-leaner with new techniques.
* Excellent organizational and time management skills, and be able to work on mu
lti-task and several projects in parallel.
* Good communication and interpersonal skills.
SKILL-SET:
Protein Biochemistry-- Protein expression and purification, Western Blot, ELISAs
, immunoprecipitation, pull down assays, DNA polymerase activity assays, Electro
phoretic Mobility Shift Assays (EMSA) for DNA-protein complex study.
Molecular Interaction study Method-- Analytical Ultracentrifugation (AUC), Isoth
ermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC), Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)
Cell Culture-- Bacterial culture, insect cell culture, plant tissue culture
Molecular technique-- Cloning, PCR, site-directed mutagenesis
Structural Biology-- X-ray crystallography
Computer Skill-- AUC, SPR and ITC data analysis and statistics, Vector NTI, py
mol, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint and etc.
EXPERIENCE:
New Haven, CT
08/07 - present
Assist my husband with his postdoctoral research project.
* Since my husband switched his research field from genetics to biochemistry whe
n he started his postdoctoral research, I aided him with deliberate discussion r
egarding his experimental design and trouble-shooting. He said that I sparked hi
s ideas and stimulated his exploration from time to time.
* Involved in discussing experimental design and analyzing experimental data on
my husband's project, "Mechanism of the ATP-dependent DNA end-resection machiner
y from Saccharomyces cerevisiae", which were published on Nature on September 2n
d.
* Self-improvement in protein biochemistry, including reading scientific books a
nd papers.
SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY
07/02 - 07/07
Graduate Student
Structure-function studies on mammalian mitochondrial DNA polymerase (pol) * in
Dr. Caroline Kisker and Dr. Daniel F. Bogenhagen labs.
* Hard-worked on investigating and finally extremely optimized the purification
procedures for human pol *A, pol *B and the holoenzyme, which was critical for s
ubsequent structural and kinetic studies.
* Examined the stoichiometry and association kinetics for human pol *A and pol *
B by utilizing a variety of biophysical and biochemical methods, including AUC,
ITC, SPR, analytical size exclusive chromatography, X-ray crystallography, etc.
* Data analysis, interpretation and preparation of reports for publication
* Optimized the over-expressions of human pol *A protein in insect cells and of
human pol *B wild-type protein and derivatives in bacterial cells.
* Extensively explored crystallization conditions for human pol *A, pol *B and t
he reconstituted holoenzyme with and without the primer-template DNA.
Resume of Zhixin Chen - Page 1 of 2
* Crystallized human pol *B protein and solved the X-ray crystal structure by mo
lecular replacement.
* Creatively and analytically developed limited proteolysis studies on human pol
* to identify the contacts between human pol * subunits, which contributed an i
mportant support data to the paper published on the EMBO Journal.
* Designed and sub-cloned human pol *A fragments to a set of vectors for over-ex
pression of the peptides in E.coli using standard PCR cloning techniques, over-e
xpressed and purified these peptides.
* Close-collaborated with postdoctoral researcher in the lab to make progresses
on this project.
* Directly involved in experiment design, data analysis and discussion on Electr
on Microscopy (EM) studies on human pol *.
* Mentored and trained junior staffs in the lab, assigned tasks to technicians i
nvolved in this project.
* Teaching assistant in Biochemistry Experiment course for one year.
Jilin Institute of Biology, Changchun, P. R. China
07/97 - 07/01
Technician
Developed the purification protocols for Cheno Deoxycholic Acid from chicken gal
lbladder and established large-scale purification procedures for the production
of anti-coughing Chinese medicines in Biochemistry-Technology laboratory.
* Explored numerous purification protocols and compared the yield and purity.
* Assisted to develop new strategies based on experiments and systematically tes
t for scaled-up purifications.
* Maintained clear laboratory notes and prepared scientific reports for research
proposal.
* Responsible for preparing stock solutions, medium and plates.
* Monitored maintenance of critical instruments and reagents, including Liquid N
itrogen, CO2 tank, cell culture incubators and more.
Nankai University, Tianjin, P.R. China
02/97 - 06
/97
College Student
Graduation thesis research on Salt-resistant plants in Plant Stress-Resistant Ge
netic Engineering Laboratory.
* Worked on callus culture of poplar and the derivative differentiation of the c
allus to identify the mutant poplar callus that can survive under high salt cond
itions.
* Conducted detailed observations and analysis on the effect of every component
in the medium.
* Coordinated with colleagues to improve the selection and analysis.
* Organized data and documentations on all the experiment conducted.
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Structural Biology
08/01 - 07/07
Stony Brook University, NY, USA.
Bachelor of Biochemistry
08/93 - 07/97
Nankai University, Tianjin, P. R. China.
TRAINING:
Analytical Ultracentrifugation workshop
06/05
National Ultracentrifugation Facility at UCONN, USA.
PUBLICATIONS:
1. Elena Yakubovskaya*, Zhixin Chen*, Jose A. Carrodeguas, Caroline Kisker, Dani
el F. Bogenhagen. Functional mitochondrial DNA polymerase * forms a heterotrime
r The Journal of Biological Chemistry VOL. 281, NO. 1, pp. 374-382, January 6, 2
006
*Both authors contributed equally to this work.
2. Elena Yakubovskaya, Mark Lukin, Zhixin Chen, John Berriman, Joseph S. Wall, R
yuji Kobayashi, Caroline Kisker, Daniel F. Bogenhagen. The EM structure of hum
an DNA polymerase * reveals a localized contact between the catalytic and access
ory subunits The EMBO Journal (2007) 26, 4283-4291.
REFERENCES:
Available upon request