Wei LIN 林玮

Jiangnan University
Email: weilin1113@jiangnan.edu.cn
Keywords: Chemical glycobiology, Fluorescent biosensors, Biological imaging

Biography

Dr. Wei Lin earned his Ph.D. from Peking University in 2017, where he worked in Prof. Xing Chen’s lab on developing new strategies for protein-specific glycan imaging. He then joined Prof. Jin Zhang’s lab at the University of California, San Diego, for postdoctoral research (2017–2022) and has continued to serve as a senior researcher in the lab (2022–2025). His work focused on developing novel kinase activity biosensors to study signaling pathways from nanoscale to cell and tissue levels. Dr. Lin has been working as a professor at Jiangnan University since 2025. His research primarily focuses on developing chemical biology tools and methods to unravel the role of glycosylation in regulating cell signaling networks.

Awards and distinctions

2021 Science Research Famous Achievement Award in Higher Institution, certified by Ministry of Education of China
2017 Outstanding PhD Graduate, certified by Peking University
2016  Award for Merit Student, certified by Peking University
2015-2016  Academic Fellowship for PhD Student, awarded by Peking University
2015  Award for Scientific Research, certified by Peking University
2014  China National Scholarship, awarded by Ministry of Education of China
2014  Award for Innovation, certified by Peking University
2013  CLS Fellowship, certified by Center for Life Sciences at Peking University

Publications

@ University of California San Diego

1. Ni, G. S., Su, H., Zhu, Y., Dhiman, A., Zhou, H-X., Lin, W.*, and Hao, N.* Tardigrade Dsup: Interactions with DNA and Protection of Cells from Oxidative Stress. Biophys. J. (Under revision) (*Co-corresponding authors) [bioRxiv (2024) doi: 10.1101/2024.11.06.622393]

2. Lin, W.*, Phatarphekar, A., Zhong, Y., Liu, L., Kwon, H-B., Gerwick, W. H., Wang, Y., Mehta S. and Zhang, J.* Light-gated Integrator for Highlighting Kinase Activity in Living Cells. Nat. Commun. 15, 7804 (2024). (*Co-corresponding authors)

3. Su, Q., Zhang, J. #, Lin, W. #, Zhang, JF., Newton, A. C., Mehta, S., Yang, J. and Zhang, J. Sensitive Fluorescent Biosensor Reveals Differential Subcellular Regulation of PKC. Nat. Chem. Biol. 21, 501-511 (2025) (#Co-second authors)

4. Gest, A., Sahan, A. Z., Zhong, Y., Lin, W., Mehta, S. and Zhang, J. Molecular Spies in Action: Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Biosensors Light up Cellular Signals. Chem. Rev. 124(22):12573-12660 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.4c00293

5. Lin, W.#, Mo, G.C.H.#, Mehta, S. and Zhang, J. DrFLINC Contextualizes Super-resolution Activity Imaging. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 37, 14951-14955 (2021). (#Co-first authors)

6. Zhang, JF., Liu, B., Hong, I., Mo, A., Roth, R.H., Tenner, B., Lin, W., Zhang, J.Z., Molina, R.S., Drobizhev, M., Hughes, T.E., Tian, L., Huganir, R.L., Mehta, S. and Zhang, J. An Ultrasensitive Biosensor for High-resolution Kinase Activity Imaging in Awake Mice. Nat. Chem. Biol. 17, 39–46 (2021).

7. Lin, W., Mehta, S. and Zhang, J. Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Biosensors Illuminate Kinase Signaling in Cancer. J. Biol. Chem. 294(40): 14814-14822 (2019).

@ Peking University

8. Sun, X., Chen, Y., Yang, C., Yang, S., Lin, W., Quan, B., Ding, Q., Chen, X., Wang, C., and Qin, W. Chemical Recording of Pump-Specific Drug Efflux in Living Cells. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63: e202409282 (2024).

9. Xu, Y., Peng, L., Wang, S., Wang, A., Ma, R., Zhou, Y., Yang, J., Sun, D., Lin, W., Chen, X. and Zou, P. Hybrid Indicators for Fast and Sensitive Voltage Imaging. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 57(15): 3949-3953 (2018)

10. Lin, W., Gao, L., Qin, K. and Chen, X. in Chemical Biology of Glycoproteins, ed. Tan, Z. and Wang, L., The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2017, p. 280-297. [Book chapter]

11. Lin, W., Gao, L. and Chen, X. Protein-Specific Imaging of O-GlcNAcylation in Single Cells. ChemBioChem. 16, 2571-2575 (2015). [Cover paper]

12. Lin, W., Gao, L. and Chen, X. Protein-Specific Imaging of Posttranslational Modifications. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 28, 156-163 (2015).

13. Lin, L., Liu, L., Zhao, B., Xie, R., Lin, W., Li, H., Shi, M., Chen, Y., Springer, T. A. and Chen, X. Carbon Nanotube-Assisted Optical Activation of TGF-β Signaling by Near-Infrared Light. Nature Nanotech. 10, 465-471 (2015).

14. Yang, Y., Lin, S., Lin, W. and Chen, R. P. Ligand-Assisted Dual-Site Click Labeling of EGFR on Living Cells. ChemBioChem. 15(12): 1738-43 (2014).

15. Lin, W., Du, Y., Zhu, Y. and Chen, X. A Cis-Membrane FRET-Based Method for Protein-Specific Imaging of Cell-Surface Glycans. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 136, 679-687 (2014). [The first article in Editors’ Choice program; Featured in Chemical & Engineering News 2014, 92(1), 10]