Jun Qu

Rapid advances in protein analytical technologies and computational informatics have created unprecedented opportunities in proteomics, enabling the exploration of complex biological systems with high sensitivity, selectivity, and quantitative accuracy previously unattainable. These developments are transforming our ability to interrogate biological processes at scale and to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying disease onset/progression and therapeutic responses. Particularly,  state-of-the-art proteomics enables high-dimensional characterization of dynamic biological cascades that evolve across both spatial and temporal dimensions, an essential but technically challenging goal in systems biology and translational research. Here I will present several global and targeted proteomics strategies developed in our group that enables in-depth and accurate interrogation of the biological cascades underlying disease and therapies. These include: (i) IonStar, an experimental strategy for robust and highly accurate quantification of tens of thousands of proteins across large cohorts; (ii) MASP, an innovation enabling deep proteome and phosphoproteome mapping, capable of mapping over 10,000 proteins and 30,000 phosphosites at the whole-tissue level; and
(iii)LC-FAIMS/dCV-MS, a targeted proteomics platform for sensitive and selective quantification of clinically relevant protein biomarkers.

These approaches enable both discovery-driven and hypothesis-guided investigations of proteome dynamics across space and time. Applications of these technologies in diverse clinical and preclinical systems will be discussed.

Jun Qu is a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of SUNY-Buffalo and the director of the Proteomics and Pharmaceutical Analysis Group in the New York Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

His research is directed toward the innovations in both global and targeted analysis of protein drugs and biomarkers, in the context of pharmaceutical and clinical investigations. The research programs include i)pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of protein biotherapeutics; ii) characterization of disease mechanisms and drug actions using ultra-high-resolution global quantitative strategies and spatial proteomics methods; iii) targeted investigation of marker proteins and therapeutic targets that are of high clinical and pharmaceutical significance. His group is one of the international leaders in LC-MS-based study of biotherapeutics and drug targets in pre-clinical models, as well as MS1-based, large-cohort quantitative proteomics. He has >170 peer reviewed publications and >80 grants funded as PI or co-I. Moreover, his team closely collaborates with Pharmaceutical industry, such as Pfizer, Roche, GSK, AbbVie, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson and Boehringer Ingraham, on pushing the limit of protein bioanalytical sciences in various pharmaceutical systems.  

• Time: 11:00 AM
• Location: 206 Furnas Hall