Jun Qin, PhD
Staff
The Bonnie and Eunice Collins Endowed Chair for Innovative Diabetes Research
Professor of Molecular Medicine
Email: [email protected]
Location: Cleveland Clinic Main Campus
Research
Every living cell in our body is composed of hundreds of thousands of proteins that are required to control diverse cellular functions and thus fundamentally important to our life. The broad research interest of Dr. Jun Qin is to understand the molecular principles of how proteins transmit information within or across cells to the control various cellular functions. In particular, his laboratory has been focusing on studying how a group of proteins, e.g., integrins, control cell adhesion — a fundamental process essential for almost every aspect of life, such as embryonic development, blood clotting and tissue regeneration. By using state-of-the-art high resolution imaging techniques such as NMR spectroscopy and crystallography, Qin laboratory solved 3D atomic-level structures of a series of cell adhesion proteins and protein complexes. These structures, combined with further structure-based mutational/functional analyses, resolved some longstanding puzzles of cell adhesion biology and thus significantly advanced the field.
In collaboration with other researchers including clinicians, Qin laboratory also pursues the structure-based design of drugs that target some crucial yet dysregulated proteins in diseases. With these state-of-the-art approaches, Dr Qin hopes to not only advance the fundamental understanding of cell adhesion and other biological processes, but also impact on patient care by accelerating the discovery and development of novel therapeutics to treat relevant diseases such as heart failure, diabetes and cancer.
Biography
Dr. Jun Qin is full-time staff in the department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences. He also holds professorship at the Lerner College of Medicine and departments of biochemistry and pharmacology, Case Western Reserve University. Specializing in structural and molecular biology, Dr Qin has had a longstanding track record studying mechanisms of cellular signal transduction via protein-protein interactions and is especially known in the area of integrin-mediated cell adhesion and signaling. Dr Qin's research has been continuously funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the past two decades. His work is highly cited, which has made seminal contributions to the basic mechanisms of cell signaling as well as to the understanding and drug development of various human diseases such as thrombosis, diabetes and cancer. He is currently Bonnie & Eunice Collins endowed chair for Innovative Diabetes Research.
Dr Qin is an elected fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science due to his significant contribution to the mechanistic understanding of cell signaling. He has served as a reviewer or board member for many journals and funding agencies and has given hundreds of invited talks in institutions and conferences. He has received numerous awards such as Maria and Sam Miller Professional Excellence Award in Basic Science, Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Innovator Award.
Dr Qin received his Ph.D from University of California Davis in 1992 and completed his postdoctoral training in National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in 1996.
Education & Professional Highlights
Education
University of California Davis, 1992 PhD
Fellowship
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 1993-1996
Professional highlights
2003–present Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Departments of Pharmacology and Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
2003–present Full Staff, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH
2011-2018 Vice Chair, Department of Molecular Cardiology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic
2001–2003 Associate Staff, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH
1996–2003 Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
1996–2000 Assistant Staff, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH
Awards and Honors
2017–present Bonnie & Eunice Collins Endowed Chair for Innovative Diabetes Research
2015 Maria and Sam Miller Professional Excellence Award in Basic Science, Cleveland Clinic
2014 Caregiver Appreciation Award for exceptional contribution to the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine education program 2012 Elected to the fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for the significant contribution to the mechanistic understanding of cell signaling
2010–present Grant Reviewer for NIH special emphasis panels (for member conflicting proposals): BCMB, SBC-A, NIDA, KMBD, and MOS.
2010–present Editorial Board, Current Chemical Biology, Open Biotechnology Journal, Open Magnetic Resonance, Open Spectroscopy
2010–2012 Member, College of Reviewers, NIH
2009, 2017 Cleveland Clinic Innovator Award
2008–2013 Editorial Board, Journal of Biological Chemistry
2005–2009 Regular Member, Macromolecular Structure and Function (MSF)-C study section, NIH
1998-present Grant Reviewer for 23 national and international organizations (>80 times) including NIH (MSFC, BBCB, BBCA, NCI-PPG committee, Instrumentation committee); NIH special emphasis panels: BCMB, SBC-A, NIDA. National Science Foundation, USA; National Science Foundation of Austria; Wellcome Trust, England; French National Research Agency (ANR), National Arthritis Foundation, Iceland; Singapore Biomedical Research Council, USA-Israel Binational Science Foundation; US Multiple Sclerosis Society; Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, National Taiwan University, AAAS, John Sealy Endowment Fund, National Nature Science Foundation of China, Swiss National Science Foundation, Czech Science Foundation
1997–present Manuscript reviewer for 70 journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, Molecular Cell, Blood, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., Cell Research, EMBO J., P.N.A.S, PloS Biology, J. Cell. Biol., Cancer Res., Structure, Sci Rep, Trends Cell Biol., Trends in Biotech., J. Biol Chem.
1991 Outstanding accomplishment award in graduate study by Clorox Company and University of California, Davis, CA
Research
Every living cell in our body is composed of hundreds of thousands of proteins. These proteins are highly coordinated in their functions for regulating diverse cellular processes and thus fundamental to our life. The broad theme of our research is to understand the molecular basis of some key protein-protein interactions in transducing cellular information (cell signaling) and their dysfunctions in human diseases such as heart failure, diabetes and cancer. To this end, we have been focusing on a class of cell surface receptors, integrins, and their associated proteins. Integrins are major components of cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion, cell morphology, and cell motility. Using structural biology techniques, including NMR spectroscopy and crystallography, we aim to build a three dimensional atomic level landscape of integrin-mediated protein interaction network to gain thorough understanding of integrin signaling. Our work so far has significantly advanced the field by building key parts of this landscape, which provided important mechanistic insight into the mechanisms of integrin signaling. In collaboration with a group of cell biologists and clinical scientists, we also investigate other important cellular signaling pathways and their dysregulations. We have been able to link our recent atomic level findings to the pathogenesis of several human disorders with exciting identification of several potential protein inhibitors for these disorders. Our studies may ultimately help develop better approaches for diagnosing and treating the relevant human diseases.
Our Team
Selected Publications
Vinogradova, O., et al. A structural mechanism of integrin αIIbβ3 ‘inside-out’ activation as regulated by its cytoplasmic face. Cell, 110, 587-597, 2002.
Velyvis A, Vaynberg, J., Yang, Y., Vinogradova O, Zhang, Y., Wu, C., Qin J. Structural and functional insights into PINCH LIM4 domain-mediated integrin signaling Nature Struct. Biol., 10, 558-564, 2003.
Vaynberg, J. et al. Structure of an ultra weak protein-protein complex and its crucial role in regulation of cell morphology and motility. Molecular Cell, 17:513-523,2005.
Goksoy, E., et al. Structural basis for the autoinhibition of talin in regulating integrin activation. Molecular Cell,31:124-133, 2008.
Fukuda, K. et al. The pseudo active site of ILK is essential for its binding to a-parvin and localization to focal adhesions. Molecular Cell, 36:819-830, 2009.
Yang, J., et al. Structure of an integrin αIIbβ3 transmembrane-cytoplasmic heterocomplex provides insight into integrin activation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 106:17729-34, 2009.
Song X., et al. A novel membrane-dependent on/off switch mechanism of talin FERM domain at sites of cell adhesion. Cell Research 22:1533-45, 2012.
Yang, J., Zhu, L., Zhang, H., Hirbawi, J., Fukuda, K., Dwivedi, P., Liu, J., Byzova, T.V., Plow, E.F., Wu, J., and Qin, J. Conformational activation of talin by RIAM triggers integrin-mediated cell adhesion, Nature Communications, 5:5880, 2014.
Liu, J., Das, M., Yang, J., Ithychanda, S.S., Yakubenko, V.P., Plow, E.F., and Qin, J. Structural mechanism of integrin inactivation by filamin. Nature Struct Mol Biol, 22:383-389, 2015.
Zhu, L., Yang, J., Bromberger, T., Holly, A., Lu, F., Liu, H., Sun, K., Klapproth, S., Hirbawi, J., Byzova, T.V., Plow, E.F., Moser, M., and Qin, J. Structure of Rap1b bound to talin reveals a new pathway for triggering integrin activation. Nature Communications, 8:1744, 2017.
Vaynberg, J., Fukuda, K., Lu, F., Bialkowska, K., Chen, Y., Plow, E.F., and Qin, J. Non-catalytic signaling by pseudokinase ILK for regulating cell adhesion. Nature Communications, 9:4465, 2018.
Lu, F., Zhu, L., Bromberger, T., Yang, J., Yang, Q., Liu, J., Plow, E.F., Moser, M., and Qin, J. Mechanism of integrin activation by talin and its cooperation with kindlin. Nature Communications, 13(1):2362, 2022.
Patents
| US Patent | Patent Title | Issue Date | First-Named Inventor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10385034 | Flavonoid IL-17 inhibitors | 08/20/2019 | Xiaoxia Li |
Careers
Research News
Through the Discovery Accelerator partnership, IBM and Cleveland Clinic teams will collaborate closely on one project, and with Algorithmiq on a second project.
In 2009, a team led by Jun Qin, PhD, Department of Molecular Cardiology, showed for the first time that ILK was not a kinase but instead a pseudokinase, while uncovering its entire crystallized structure