Dax Fu, PhD
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
Languages
- English
Gender
MaleAbout Dax Fu
Primary Academic Title
Professor of Physiology
Background
Dr. Dax Fu is a professor of physiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His research focuses on zinc transporters from molecular structures to pathophysiologic roles in mammalian cells.
His lab is translating basic research in structure and function of a human pancreatic zinc transporter to early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions of diabetes.
Dr. Fu received his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University in China and earned a Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from Mayo Medical School. He conducted post-doctoral work in membrane biochemistry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and X-ray crystallography at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine.
Dr. Fu received the National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health from 1998-2000. He is a founding member of the International Society for Zinc Biology, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Centers and Institutes
Recent News Articles and Media Coverage
Zinc Transporter Protein Structure Deciphered, Brookhaven National Laboratory (August 23, 2007)
High-Res View of Zinc Transport Protein, Brookhaven National Laboratory (September 13, 2009)
Uptake Protein Acts as Zinc’s Doorway to the Cell, Brookhaven National Laboratory (November 22, 2010)
Protons Power Protein Portal to Push Zinc Out of Cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine (June 23, 2014)
Search On For Drug to Tame ‘Hyperactive’ Zinc Transporter and Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk, Johns Hopkins Medicine (December 15, 2016)
Study Advances Efforts to Screen All Children for Type I Diabetes, Johns Hopkins Medicine (September 13, 2017)
Research Interests
Zinc physiology with a focus on structure, function and regulation of zinc transporters
Lab Website
Fu Lab - Lab Website
- The Fu Lab is a basic research lab that studies zinc transport, with a particular focus on which step in the zinc transport process may be modulated and how. Dr. Fu's lab uses parallel cell biology and proteomic approaches to understand how these physiochemical principles are applied to mammalian zinc transporters and integrated to the physiology of pancreatic beta cells. This research has implications for understanding how zinc transport is related to diabetes and insulin intake.
Research Summary
Zinc transporters regulate subcellular zinc distributions to ensure proper metalation of numerous zinc enzymes and signaling molecules. Fluctuations of cytosolic zinc concentration constitute the basis for zinc signaling, but also challenge zinc homeostasis with broad disease implications. Our research is focusing on ZnT8, a pancreatic zinc transporter that mediates zinc enrichment in insulin secretory granules. ZnT8 is a major self-antigen in type-1 diabetes, and also a major risk factor for type-2 diabetes. We are investigating molecular mechanisms driving pathophysiologic changes in pancreatic beta-cells, which are the sole provider of insulin in the human body. Enabling technologies have been developed to study the structure and dynamic of ZnT8 at the molecular level, and its physiological roles in regulating insulin processing and secretion in beta cells. Research findings are being translated to new diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions for early detection and treatments of diabetes.
Selected Publications
Gupta S, Chai J, Cheng, J, D'Mello R, Chance* MC, and Fu* D. Visualizing the kinetic power stroke that drives proton-coupled Zn(II) transport. Nature 512(7512):101-4(2014)
Huang Q, Merriman C, Zhang H, Fu D*. Coupling of Insulin Secretion and Display of a Granule-resident Zinc Transporter ZnT8 on the Surface of Pancreatic Beta Cells, JBC 292(10):4034-4043 (2017).
Lu M and Fu D*. Structure of the zinc transport YiiP. Science, 317:1746-8 (2007). This paper was selected as a Science highlight.
Merriman C, Huang Q, Rutter GA, Fu D*. Lipid-tuned Zinc Transport Activity of Human ZnT8 Protein Correlates with Risk for Type-2 Diabetes, JBC 291(53):26950-26957. (2016) This work was selected as a JBC paper-of-the-week.
Wan H, Merriman C, Wasserfall HC, Atkinson MA, Mcgrail KM, Liang Y, Fu D*, and Dai H* A novel proteoliposome-based full-length ZnT8 self-antigen for type 1 diabetes diagnosis on a plasmonic platform. PNAS 19;114(38):10196-10201 (2017).
Honors
National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health, 1/1/98
Professional Activities
- Biochemistry and Biophysics of Membranes study section, NIH, Member, 1/1/10 - 1/1/14
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Member, Brookhaven Council, 1/1/09 - 1/1/10
- Journal of Biological Chemistry, Member, Editorial board, 1/1/14
Additional Training
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 1997, Membrane Biochemistry; University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, 2000, X-ray Crystallography