Biography
Di Zhang, an assistant professor at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University, is a Boya Young Scholar, and a researcher at the National Key Laboratory of Gene Function Research and Manipulation and the Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences. He explores signaling mechanisms in metabolic adaptation and regulation.
Zhang graduated from the Peking University Basic Medical College's eight-year program under Academician Yongfeng Shang, studying the molecular mechanisms of epigenetics and transcriptional regulation in tumorigenesis. During his postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago with Professor Yingming Zhao, he first found that metabolic products (e.g., lactate, ketone bodies) in mammalian cells drive novel protein modifications like lysine lactylation, with his work cited over 3,000 times.
Education
2010 - 2013 Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China
2005 - 2010 B.S. Basic Medical Science, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China
Professional Experience
2021.03 – present Assistant Professor, Peking University School of Life Sciences, Beijing, China
2021.03 – present Principal Investigator, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Beijing, China
2013.09 – 2021.01 Postdoc, Ben May Department for Cancer Research, The University of Chicago, USA
Social Services
Has long served as a reviewer for journals such as Cell Metabolism, Cell Research, Nature Metabolism, Nature Cancer, and Nature Chemical Biology.
Honors and Awards
Beijing Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, 2026
Teaching Excellence Award of Peking University, 2025.
The Outstanding Instructor Award in the 24th Peking University Teaching Basic Skills Competition for Young Teachers, 2025.
First Prize in the 22nd Peking University Teaching Basic Skills Competition for Young Teachers, 2023.
Peking University Dongbao Teaching Award, 2023
Peking University Boya Young Fellow, 2022
Bayer Investigator, 2021
Yi Fang Investigator, 2021
Porfessional Society Affiliations
Chinese Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (CSBMB)
Textbook
Biochemistry: 101 Program Textbook by the Ministry of Education
Teaching
《Molecular Biology》for Undergraduate Students；
《Biochemistry Seminar》for Undergraduate Students；
《Frontiers of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology》for Undergraduate Students；
《Research Practices in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology》for Undergraduate Students；
《Research Ethics and Thesis Guidance in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology》for Undergraduate Students；
《Advances in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology》for Graduate Students；
《Fundamentals of Life Science Experiments》for Graduate Students
Metabolism not only provides cells with energy and biosynthetic building blocks but also functions as a critical regulatory system that shapes cellular behaviors through diverse mechanisms, thereby connecting metabolism to virtually all aspects of life processes. Our research team is dedicated to uncovering how metabolic signals regulate fundamental cellular activities through complex molecular mechanisms, enabling cells to adapt to dynamic environments. We further investigate how dysregulated metabolic pathways contribute to the initiation and progression of major human diseases.
By integrating classical biochemical, cellular, and molecular biology approaches with advanced multi-omics technologies, we have identified and characterized a series of metabolite-driven protein modifications, including lysine lactylation (mediated by lactate) and lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation (mediated by ketone bodies), revealing new mechanisms by which metabolism directly regulates cellular functions.
Specifically, our research focuses on:
1. Signal-regulatory functions of metabolites
— including metabolite-driven post-translational modifications and metabolite-mediated allosteric regulation.
2. Regulatory functions of metabolic enzymes beyond metabolism
— exploring how metabolic enzymes act as signaling molecules to control cellular behaviors.
3. Metabolic adaptation and novel mechanisms of metabolic regulation
— elucidating how cells adapt to metabolic changes and how these regulatory mechanisms contribute to physiology and disease.
(*Co-first author, # Corresponding author)
(1) Ren H, Tang Y, Zhang D#. (2025).The emerging role of protein l-lactylation in metabolic regulation and cell signalling. Nat Metab 7: 647–664.
(2) Zhang D#, Gao J, Zhu Z, Mao Q, Xu Z, Singh PK, Rimayi CC, Moreno-Yruela C, Xu S, Li G, Sin YC, Chen Y, Olsen CA, Snyder NW, Dai L, Li L, Zhao Y. (2024). Lysine L-lactylation is the dominant lactylation isomer induced by glycolysis. Nat Chem Biol. 21(1): 91–99.
(3) Ren H, Zhang D#. (2024). Lactylation constrains OXPHOS under hypoxia. Cell Res. 34(2):91-92.
(4) Gao J, Sheng X, Du J, Zhang D, Han C, Chen Y, Wang C, Zhao Y. (2023). Identification of 113 new histone marks by CHiMA, a tailored database search strategy. Sci Adv. 9(14): eadf1416.
(5) Moreno-Yruela C, Zhang D*, Wei W, Bæk M, Liu W, Gao J, Danková D, Nielsen AL, Bolding JE, Yang L, Jameson ST, Wong J, Olsen CA, Zhao Y. (2022). Class I histone deacetylases (HDAC1-3) are histone lysine delactylases. Sci Adv. 8(3): eabi6696.
(6) Huang H, Zhang D*, Weng Y, Delaney K, Tang Z, Yan C, Qi S, Peng C, Cole PA, Roeder RG, Zhao Y. (2021). The regulatory enzymes and protein substrates for the lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation pathway. Sci Adv. 7(9): eabe2771.
(7) Zhang D*, Tang Z*, Huang H, Zhou G, Cui C, Weng Y, Liu W, Kim S, Lee S, Perez-Neut M, Czyz D, Hu R, Ye Z, He M, Zheng YG, Shuman H, Ding J, Dai L, Ren B, Robert RG, Becker L, Zhao Y. (2019). Metabolic regulation of gene expression by histone lactylation. Nature. 574: 575-580.
(8) Huang H, Zhang D, Wang Y, Perez-Neut M, Han Z, Zheng YG, Hao Q, Zhao Y. (2018). Lysine benzoylation is a histone mark regulated by SIRT2. Nat Commun. 9(1): 3374.
(9) Sabari BR*, Zhang D*, Allis CD, Zhao Y. (2017). Metabolic Regulation of Gene Expression through Differential Histone Acylation. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 18(2): 90-101.
(10) Xie Z*, Zhang D*, Chung D*, Tang Z, Huang H, Dai L, Qi S, Li J, Colak G, Chen Y, Xia C, Peng C, Ruan H, Kirkey M, Wang D, Jensen LM, Kwon OK, Lee S, Pletcher SD, Tan M, Lombard DB, White KP, Zhao H, Li J, Roeder RG, Yang X, Zhao Y. (2016). Metabolic Regulation of Gene Expression by Histone Lysine beta-hydroxybutyrylation. Mol Cell. 62(2): 194-206.
(11) Goudarzi A*, Zhang D*, Huang H, Barral S, Kwon OK, Qi S, Tang Z, Buchou T, Vitte AL, He T, Cheng Z, Montellier E, Gaucher J, Curtet S, Debernardi A, Charbonnier G, Puthier D, Petosa C, Panne D, Rousseaux S, Roeder RG, Zhao Y, Khochbin S. (2016). Dynamic Competing Histone H4 K5K8 Acetylation and Butyrylation Are Hallmarks of Highly Active Gene Promoters. Mol Cell. 62(2): 169-80.
(12) Zhang Y*, Zhang D*, Liang J, Yi X, Gui B, Yu W, Sun L, Yang X, Han X, Chen Z, Liu S, Si W, Yan R, Wang Y, Shang Y. (2016). Nucleation of DNA Repair Factors by FOXA1 Links DNA Demethylation to Transcriptional Pioneering. Nat Genet. 48(9): 1003-13.
