Junpeng Deng

Dr. Junpeng Deng received his B.S. degree in 1993 from University of Science and Technology of China. He obtained his M.S. degree in 1996 from Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2001, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Biophysics at the Ohio State University, Columbus OH. Dr. Deng then joined Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the site of Seattle, Washington in 2001, in the research lab led by Dr. Wim HOL who is a pioneer in protein crystallography and structure based drug design. In 2006, Dr. Deng joined the faculty at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Oklahoma State University, where he plays a leading role in protein structural biology. Dr. Deng has developed a vigorous research program, focusing on essential proteins related to Parkinson's disease,cytokine signaling, autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Research Interests:

In this lab, we are interested in understanding the structure and function of proteins that are involved in important biological pathways. We are using biochemical and biophysical approaches such as x-ray crystallography to investigate the mechanisms by which these protein molecules function and how they are related to human diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, infectious diseases and cancer.