Kai Zhang

Assistant Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry 

Kai Zhang’s main research focuses on structural mechanism of dynein/dynactin related complexes. In 2014, he determined the 23-subunit structure of dynactin complex by cryo-EM at near-atomic resolution, which was later published as a cover story in Science. Recently, he solved the first 3D structure of the extremely flexible dynein complex. Zhang is also interested in methodology development on all aspects of cryo-EM/ET. He is the author of GCTF (CTF determination and correction program), Gautomatch (real-time particle picking program, to be published), ATOM (tomography packaget), among other unpublished programs. He earned a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Science in 2013.