Principal Investigator, Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

2021-now, Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry, Principle Investigator

2016-2021, Vollum Institute& HHMI, Postdoctoral Fellow

2010-2015, Tsinghua University, Ph.D.

2006-2010, Jilin University, B.S. 

The research in Dr. Yu’s lab focuses on elucidating molecular mechanisms for the function of membrane signaling complexes in neuron. Membrane signaling complexes play fundamental roles in mediating signal transduction at synapses, transporting ions and small molecules across membrane and catalyzing enzymatic reactions in the central nervous system. Dysfunction of the membrane signaling complexes leads to a series of neurological disorders and majority of currently approved drugs target membrane proteins. We aim to understand how the signaling complexes work in their native or native-like environment in structural and biochemical terms and how neurological disease-related mutations remold function and how small molecules might be created to modulate function by employing cryo-electron microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and patch clamp electrophysiology methods.

Significant Works

1. Yu J*, Rao P*, Clark S, Mitra J, Ha T and Gouaux E. Hippocampal AMPA receptor assemblies and mechanism of allosteric inhibition (2021). Nature, 594(7863):448-453. 

2. Yu J*, Zhu H*, Lape R, Greiner T, Du J, Lü W, Sivilotti L, Gouaux E. Mechanism of gating and partial agonist action in the glycine receptor (2021). Cell, 184:957-968.e21. 

3. Phulera S*, Zhu H*, Yu J*, Claxton DP, Yoder N, Craig Yoshioka C, Gouaux E. Cryo-EM structure of the benzodiazepine-sensitive α1β1γ2S tri-heteromeric GABAA receptor in complex with GABA (2018). eLife, 7:e39383.

4. Yu J.*, Zhang B, Zhang Y, Xu CQ, Zhuo W, Ge J, Li J, Gao N, Li Y, Yang M. A binding-block ion selective mechanism revealed by a Na/K selective channel (2018). Protein Cell, 9(7):629-639. 

5. Yu J*, Ge J*., Heuveling J, Schneider E, and Yang M. Structural basis for substrate specificity of an amino acid ABC transporter (2015). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 112, 5243-5248. 

6. Yu J*, Pian Y*, Ge J*, Guo J, Zheng Y, Jiang H, Hao H, Yuan Y, Jiang Y, and Yang M.  Functional and structural characterization of the antiphagocytic properties of a novel transglutaminase from streptococcus suis (2015). J. Bio. Chem, 290, 19081-19092.