Ren Zhang   Position:   Senior Lecturer Room:   35.124 Phone No:   +61 2 4221 3427 Email:   rzhang@uow.edu.au Lab Phone:   +(61) 2 4221 4684

Research Interests

Signal transduction of plant development and plant-microbe interactions

Edible and medicinal mushrooms

Metal tolerance and Phytoremediation 

Bioinformatics

Smart Foods Key Centre of Teaching and Research

 

Representative Publications

Zhang R, Letham DS, Wong OC, Nooden LD, Parker CW (1987) Cytokinin biochemistry in relation to leaf senescence I.  The metabolism of 6-benzylaminopurine in soybean leaves and the inhibition of its conjugation. Plant Physiol 83 337-340

Walker JC, Zhang R (1990): Relationship of a putative receptor protein kinase from maize to the S-locus glycoproteins of Brassica.   Nature 345 743-746

Zhang R, Dickinson MJ, Pryor AJ (1994) Double-stranded RNAs in the rust fungi.  Annual Review of Phytopathology  34 115-133

Zhang R, Zhang X, Wang J, Letham DS, Mckinney SA, Higgins TJV (1995) The effect of auxin on cytokinin levels and metabolism in transgenic tobacco tissue expressing an ipt  gene. Planta.  196 84-94

Zhang R, Letham DS, Willcocks DA (2002) Lateral movement and metabolism of xylem cytokinins in stems of Lupinus angustifolius. Phytochemistry 60 483-488

Burden S, Lin YX, Zhang R (2005) Improving promoter prediction: A case study using E. coli DNA sequence. Bioinformatics. 21 601-607

Publication List (PDF 33k)
1st Asian Pacific Conference on Bioinformatics (PDF 77k)

Searchable Publication List

 

Current Students

PhD

Sameer Tiwari

RNA Silencing in Plant Protection.

James Scifleet

Characterisation of novel arsenic resistance proteins from Bacillus sp. CDB3 (co-supervised with Dr Andrew Aquilina).

Sherin Alex

Arsenic Resistance (co-supervised with A/Prof Yan-Xia Lin).

 

MSc Research

Rachel Caldwell

Bioinformatics of Gene Regulation (co-supervised with A/Prof Yan-Xia Lin).

Sam Abraham

Molecular approaches to analyze stress inducing probiotic/pathogen interactions.

Kiran Sarafaz

Examination of small RNA interferring pathways in Heterosis.

 

Suggested Topics for Future Students

Abbreviated CV

Academic Appointments:

Senior Lecturer, 2000-present, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong (UoW) 

Plant Molecular Biology Unit Co-ordinator, 1/1999-present, Commonwealth Smart Foods Key Centre of Teaching and Research at UoW 

Lecturer, 1995-1999, Department of Biological Sciences, UoW 

Research Scientist/Senior Research Scientist 1990-1994, CSIRO Division of Plant Industry

Postdoctoral Fellow,1988-1990, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia

Visiting Fellow, 1987-1988, CSIRO Division of Plant Industry and RSBS, ANU 

 

Other Positions Held

Adjunct Professor, 1995-present, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, China

Adjunct Research Professor, 1995-1999, Institute of Developmental Biology, Academia Sinica

Visiting Scientist 1996, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK

Visiting Investigator  2001, Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, USA

Education Qualifications:

PhD: 1987,  Australian National University (ANU)

MSc: 1981, Academia Sinica (Beijing Institute of Botany

BSc: 1978, Nankai University

Memberships of Academic Societies:

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

American Society of Plant Biologists

International Society for Plant Molecular Biology