Research interests:
Dr. Zhang's research focus is on developing peptide-based therapeutic agents for treatment of endocrine diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Recent projects include chemical synthesis of virual insulin-like peptides, design and synthesis of cross-linked insulin analogs, and discovery of an insulin prodrug with new activation strategy.
Representative publications:
- Emrah Altindis, Weikang Cai, Masaji Sakaguchi, Fa Zhang, Wang GuoXiao, Fa Liu, Pierre De Meyts, Vasily Gelfanov, Hui Pan, Richard DiMarchi, C Ronald Kahn. “Viral insulin-like peptides activate human insulin and IGF-1 receptor signaling: A paradigm shift for host–microbe interactions” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, 115, 246
- Fa Zhang, John P. Mayer, Vasily Gelfanov, Fa Liu, Richard D DiMarchi. “Structurally Constrained Insulin Analogs by Directed Stepwise Crosslinking” Protein & Peptide Letters, DOI : 10.2174/0929866525666181101103500
- Richard D DiMarchi, Fa Liu, Fa Zhang, Alexander Zaykov. “Single Chain Insulin Prodrugs” Dec 07, 2017 WO2017210077 A1
- Fangzhou Wu, John P. Mayer, Alexander N. Zaykov, Fa Zhang, Fa Liu, Richard D. DiMarchi* “Chemical synthesis of human insulin like peptide-6” Chemistry, A European Journal, 2016, 22, 9777
- Richard D Dimarchi, Binbin Kou, Fa Zhang, John P. Mayer “Lipidated amide-based insulin prodrugs” Mar 31, 2016 WO 2016049174A1