Jing Zhou
Researcher in Luis Parada's lab whose work includes the 2009 study showing that rapamycin prevents and reverses brain abnormalities in neural Pten-knockout mice
UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parada lab · Pten/mTORC1 neurodevelopmental biology, 2005–2013
Jing Zhou was a fixture of Luis F. Parada's lab at UT Southwestern for roughly eight years (2005-2013), co-authoring a remarkable run of the lab's flagship papers on PTEN and mTORC1 signaling in the nervous system — across Neuron, Genes & Development, the Journal of Neuroscience, Nature Cell Biology, Human Molecular Genetics and PNAS. The 2009 J Neurosci paper in this Atlas entry showed that pharmacological inhibition of mTORC1 (rapamycin) suppressed anatomical, cellular, and behavioral abnormalities caused by neural Pten deletion in mice — evidence that mTORC1 hyperactivity underlies the neuronal hypertrophy and part of the behavioural phenotype, and a rationale for mTOR inhibitors in PTEN-related neurodevelopmental disorders.
The breadth of her authorship across the lab's genetic mouse models suggests a long-term research scientist role. Her PubMed trail as 'Jing Zhou' effectively ends with a 2013 PNAS paper; given how common this name is, her subsequent career could not be reliably traced.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A | Pharmacological inhibition of mTORC1 suppresses anatomical, cellular, and behavioral abnormalities in neural-specific Pten knock-out mice ZHO2009 First author of the paper showing pharmacological mTORC1 inhibition (rapamycin) reverses anatomical, cellular, and behavioral abnormalities in neural Pten-knockout mice. |