Faculty

Lijun Zhou, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Department: Biochemistry and Biophysics

Graduate Group Affiliations

Cell and Molecular Biology

Contact information

345 Clinical Research Building,
415 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Email:
Lijun.zhou@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Publications

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Education:
B.S. (Biology )
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2008.
Ph.D. (Biochemistry and Structural Biology )
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2013.

Links
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Permanent link

> Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details

Description of Research Expertise

Nucleic Acid Chemistry;
Non-natural Nucleic Acid (XNA);
In vitro Selection;
RNA-protein interaction;
Structural Biology;
Artificial Cells.

Selected Publications

Dian Ding, Lijun Zhou, Shriyaa Mittal, and Jack W. Szostak*: Experimental Tests of the Virtual Circular Genome Model for Nonenzymatic RNA Replication. J Am Chem Soc Mar 2023.

Ding D, Zhou L, Giurgiu C, Szostak JW.: Kinetic explanations for the sequence biases observed in the nonenzymatic copying of RNA templates. Nucleic Acids Res 50: 35-45, Jan 2022.

Kim SC, O'Flaherty DK, Giurgiu C, Zhou L, Szostak JW.: The Emergence of RNA from the Heterogeneous Products of Prebiotic Nucleotide Synthesis. J Am Chem Soc 143: 3267-3279, Mar 2021.

Zhou L, Ding D, Szostak JW.: The virtual circular genome model for primordial RNA replication. RNA Jan 2021.

O'Flaherty DK, Zhou L, Szostak JW: Nonenzymatic RNA-templated Synthesis of N3'→P5' Phosphoramidate DNA. Bio-protocol 10: e3734, Sep 2020.

Zhou L, O'Flaherty DK, Szostak JW.: Assembly of a Ribozyme Ligase from Short Oligomers by Nonenzymatic Ligation. J Am Chem Soc 142: 15961-15965, Sep 2020.

Zhou L, O'Flaherty DK, Szostak JW.: Template-Directed Copying of RNA by Non-enzymatic Ligation. Angew Chem Int Ed 59: 15682-15687, Sep 2020.

Kim SC, Zhou L, Zhang W, O'Flaherty DK, Rondo-Brovetto V, Szostak JW.: A Model for the Emergence of RNA from a Prebiotically Plausible Mixture of Ribonucleotides, Arabinonucleotides, and 2'-Deoxynucleotides. J Am Chem Soc 142: 2317-2326, Feb 2020.

Wright TH, Giurgiu C, Zhang W, Radakovic A, O'Flaherty DK, Zhou L, Szostak JW. : Prebiotically Plausible "Patching" of RNA Backbone Cleavage through a 3'-5' Pyrophosphate Linkage. J Am Chem Soc 141: 18104-18112, Nov 2019.

Zhou L, Kim SC, Ho KH, O'Flaherty DK, Giurgiu C, Wright TH, Szostak JW.: Non-enzymatic primer extension with strand displacement. Elife 8: e51888, Nov 2019.