Yinsheng Wang
Professor of Chemistry & Donald T. Sawyer Endowed Chair

Shandong University, China - B.S. (1993)
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China - M.S. (1996)
Washington University, St. Louis - Ph.D. (2001)

Office: 332 Chemical Sciences
Phone O/L: (951) 827-2700/2593
Email: yinsheng.wang@ucr.edu
Research Area: Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Biology
Group Site

Research Overview

In the DNA damage and mutagenesis area, our laboratory has been using a multi-pronged approach, which encompasses mass spectrometry-based analytical chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology tools to understand, at the molecular level, how various DNA damage products are repaired, and how they perturb the efficiency and fidelity of flow of genetic information during DNA replication and transcription.  The types of DNA damage that we have been working with include bulky DNA lesions induced by reactive oxygen species and, more recently, the carboxyalkylated DNA lesions induced by methylglyoxal (a byproduct of glycolysis) and metabolites of N-nitroso compounds formed endogenously or present in environmental pollutants. Students and postdocs working in this area are exposed to highly interdisciplinary training at the interface of chemistry and biology.

In the proteomics area, we focus on three different aspects:

• Quantitative Proteomics.  We employ Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino Acid in Cell Culture (SILAC) combined with LC-MS/MS to assess, at the global proteome level, the perturbation in expression of proteins in cells that are treated with anti-cancer drugs and environmental agents.  The objectives for these studies are to unravel the mechanisms underlying the anti-neoplastic effects of the drugs and the cytotoxic effects of the environmental agents. 
• Post-translational Modifications of Proteins.  We employ mass spectrometry to identify novel post-translational modifications of cellular proteins and use molecular biology tools to assess the biological significances of these modifications.
• Functional Proteomics. We design chemical probes to selectively enrich and pull-down membrane and nucleotide-binding proteins from the entire proteome and examine how these subset of proteomes respond to extracellular stimulants.  Students and postdocs working in this area have access to state-of-the-art instrumentation (including a Thermo LTQ Orbitrap Velos with nano-LC and an Agilent 6510 Q-TOF with chip-cube interface) in the group and are exposed to a variety of other experimental techniques including mammalian cell culture and molecular biology.

Awards

Selected Publications