Zucai Suo Ph.D.
Eminent Professor, Dorian and John Blackmon Chair in Biomedical Science
Biosketch
Dr. Zucai Suo received both his B.S. in chemistry and M.S. in physical chemistry from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He then worked as a semiconductor scientist to develop infrared detectors for meteorological satellites in Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Subsequently, Dr. Suo moved to USA to study and obtained his Ph.D. in biological chemistry in the laboratory of Kenneth A. Johnson at Pennsylvania State University. After graduate studies, Dr. Suo became a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow for two years in the laboratory of Christopher T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he worked as a senior biochemist at Eli Lilly to develop anti-hepatitis C drugs. From 2001 to 2018, Dr. Suo was Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, The Ohio State University. In the summer of 2018, Dr. Suo moved his laboratory to Florida State University College of Medicine. Dr. Suo has served in different administrative roles for the Division of Chemical Toxicology, the American Chemical Society. Notably, Dr. Suo has co-founded a biotech company in San Diego, California, and is in the process of founding the Drug Discovery Institute at Florida State University. So far, Dr. Suo has won numerous awards, published 107 research articles, applied for four patents, and worked on the early development of two blockbuster antiviral drugs. He has trained over 80 people including postdocs, graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students.
Suo Lab Website
Education
1982-1986 B.S. Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
1986-1989 M.S. Physical Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
1992-1997 Ph.D. Biological Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
1998-2000 Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, MA
Service
Editorial Board, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2017-present)
Editorial Board, Chemical Research in Toxicology (2013-present)
Editorial Board, F1000 Research (2012-present)
Editorial Board, Science China (Chemistry) (2011-2017
Editorial Board, Journal of Nucleic Acids (2010-2017)
Guest Editor, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2011-2013)
President, the Chinese-American Chemistry & Chemical Biology Professors Association in USA (2012-2016)
Secretary, Division of Chemical Toxicology, American Chemical Society (1/12016-12/31/2017)
Treasurer-Elect, Division of Chemical Toxicology, American Chemical Society (1/1/2020-12/31/2021)
Scientific Review Committees
Ad hoc reviewer, the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (2004, 2005)
Ad hoc Reviewer, the Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) Program, the Department of Health, Pennsylvania (2007)
Ad hoc Reviewer, Carolinas Medical Center for Multidisciplinary Research Grant Program of North Carolina Biotechnology Center (2008)
Ad hoc Reviewer, Kentucky Lung Cancer Research Program (2010)
Ad hoc Reviewer, the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, China (2011, 2013, 2017)
Ad hoc Reviewer, JSC "National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation”, Republic of Kazakhstan (2015)
Panel member, the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Departmental Multi-User Instrumentation (CRIF-MU) program, the National Science Foundation (2007)
Panel member, Mechanisms of Inheritance Panel, the National Science Foundation (2012)
Ad hoc Reviewer, different panels of the Biomolecular Systems Cluster, the National Science Foundation (2005-present)
Panel member, NIH Special Emphasis Panel, ZRG1 BCMB-D (2011)
Panel member, NIH Special Emphasis Panel, ZRG1 AARR-K (2016)
Ad hoc reviewer, Study Section MSFE, the National Institutes of Health (2006-2012)
Regular Panel member, Study Section MSFE/MSFA, the National Institutes of Health (2013-2017)
Honors/Awards
2018 Eminent Professor and Dorean and John Blackmon Chair in Biomedical Science, Florida State University
2017 OKeanos-CAPA Senior Investigator Award
2013 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2011-present Faculty Member, Faculty 1000
2009 Distinguished Faculty Award from the Chinese-American Chemistry & Chemical Biology Professors Association in USA
2007 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
2006 Dean’s Award for Classroom Teaching for Faculty
2005 National Science Foundation Career Award
1998 The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship
Memberships
American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Biophysical Society, American Chemical Society, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Society for Microbiology, American Society for Virology
Research Focus
The research in the Suo Laboratory uses multi-disciplinary methods, including pre-steady state kinetics, single molecule methods, and high resolution structure determination, to elucidate mechanisms of DNA/RNA synthesis, DNA lesion bypass, and base excision repair. His laboratory also use these advanced methods to mechanistically investigate gene editing enzymes including CRISPR/Cas9, Cpf1, and Cas13a and use protein engineering methods to modify these enzymes in order to minimize their off-target issues. Furthermore, the Suo laboratory investigate inhibitory mechanisms of FDA-approved drugs and develop novel antiviral and anticancer drugs. His group also uses live imaging to investigate exosome fusion with mammalian cells.
Publications
Publications in 2017 and 2018 (*corresponding author)
Raper, A. T., Stephenson, A., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Sharpening the scissors: Mechanistic details of CRISPR/Cas9 improve understanding and inspire future research”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Perspective, 140, 11142-11152. Featured in JACS Spotlights
Raper, A. T., Reed, A., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Kinetic Mechanism of DNA Polymerases: Contributions of Conformational Dynamics and a Third Divalent Metal Ion”, Chem. Review, 118, 6000-6025.
Gadkari, V., Harvey, S., Raper, A. T., Chu, W.-T., Wang, J., Wysocki, V., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Investigation of Sliding DNA Clamp Dynamics by Single-Molecule Fluorescence, Mass Spectrometry, and Structure-Based Modeling”, Nucleic Acids Res. 46, 3103-3118.
Stephenson, A., Raper, A. T., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Bidirectional Degradation of DNA Cleavage Products Catalyzed by CRISPR/Cas9”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., article, 140, 3743-3750. Featured in JACS Spotlights and highlighted by F1000.
Raper, A. T., Stephenson, A., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Functional Insights Revealed by the Kinetic Mechanism of CRISPR/Cas9”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., article, 140, 2971-2984. Featured in JACS Spotlights and highlighted by F1000.
Kimsey, I. J., Szymanski, E. S., Zahurancik, W. J., Shakya, A., Chu, C.-C., Sathyamoorthy, B., Suo, Z.*, and Al-Hashimi, H. M.* (2018) “Dynamic basis for dG•dT misincorporation via tautomerization and ionization", article, Nature 554, 195-201. Highlighted by Nature and more than 50 worldwide media organizations.
Campbell, B.B., Light, N., Fabrizio, D., Zatzman, M., Fuligni, F., de Borja, R., Davidson, S., Edwards, M., Elvin, J.A., Hodel, K.P., Zahurancik, W.J., Suo, Z., Lipman, T., Wimmer, K., Kratz, C.P., Bowers, D.C., Laetsch, T.W., Dunn, G.P., Johanns, T.M., Grimmer, M.R., Smirnov, I.V., Larouche, V., Samuel, D., Bronsema, A., Osborn, M., Stearns, D., Raman, P., Cole, K.A., Storm, P.B., Yalon, M., Opocher, E., Mason, G., Thomas, G.A., Sabel, M., George, B., Ziegler, D.S., Lindhorst, S., Issai, V.M., Constantini, S., Toledano, H., Elhasid, R., Farah, R., Dvir, R., Dirks, P., Huang, A., Galati, M.A., Chung, J., Ramaswamy, V., Irwin, M.S., Aronson, M., Durno, C., Taylor, M.D., Rechavi, G., Maris, J.M., Bouffet, E., Hawkins, C., Costello, J.F., Meyn, M.S., Pursell, Z.F., Malkin, D., Tabori, U.*, and Shlien, A.* (2017) Comprehensive analysis of hypermutation in human cancer. Cell. 171, 1042-1056. Highlighted by Cell and many worldwide media organizations.
Tokarsky, E. J., Wallenmeyer, P. C., Phi, K. K., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Significant impact of divalent metal ions on the fidelity, sugar selectivity, and drug incorporation efficiency of human PrimPol”, DNA Repair, 49, 51-59.
Reed, A., Vyas, R., Raper, A. T., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Structural Insights into the Post-Chemistry Steps of Nucleotide Incorporation Catalyzed by a DNA Polymerase”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 465-471.
Raper, A. T., Reed, A., Gadkari, V., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Advances in Structural and Single-Molecule Methods for Investigating DNA Lesion Bypass and Repair Polymerases”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 260-269.
Wang, Y., Jin, F., Wang, Q., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Long-term survival of AIDS patients treated with only traditional Chinese medicine”, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 90, 90-92. Highlighted by worldwide media organizations.
Gowda, P., Suo, Z., and Spratt, T.* (2017) “Honokiol inhibits DNA polymerases ß and ? and increases bleomycin sensitivity of human cancer cells”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 715-725.
Lee, E., Fowler, J. D., Suo, Z., and Wu, Z.* (2017) “Backbone assignment of the binary complex of the full length Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA Polymerase IV and DNA”, Biomolecular NMR Assignments, 11, 39-43.
Stephenson, A., Taggart, D., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Non-catalytic, N-terminal Domains of Human DNA Polymerase Lambda Affect Its Cellular Localization and DNA Damage Response”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 1240-1249.
Gowda, P., Krzeminski, J., Amin, S., Suo, Z., and Spratt, T.* (2017) “Mutagenic Replication of N2-dG benzo[a]pyrene adduct by E. coli DNA polymerase I and Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase IV”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 1168-1176.
Vyas, R., Reed, A., Raper, A. T., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Structural basis for the D-stereoselectivity of human DNA polymerase ß”, Nucleic Acids Res. 45, 6228-6237.
Wu, J., Wang, P., Li, L., Williams, N., Zahurancik, W., You, C., Wang, J., Suo, Z., and Wang, Y.* (2017) “Replication studies of carboxymethylated DNA lesions in human cells”, Nucleic Acids Res. 45, 7276-7284.
Reed, A. and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Time-dependent extension from an 8-oxoguanine lesion by human DNA polymerase beta”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 9684-9690.
Dr. Zucai Suo received both his B.S. in chemistry and M.S. in physical chemistry from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He then worked as a semiconductor scientist to develop infrared detectors for meteorological satellites in Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Subsequently, Dr. Suo moved to USA to study and obtained his Ph.D. in biological chemistry in the laboratory of Kenneth A. Johnson at Pennsylvania State University. After graduate studies, Dr. Suo became a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow for two years in the laboratory of Christopher T. Walsh at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he worked as a senior biochemist at Eli Lilly to develop anti-hepatitis C drugs. From 2001 to 2018, Dr. Suo was Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, The Ohio State University. In the summer of 2018, Dr. Suo moved his laboratory to Florida State University College of Medicine. Dr. Suo has served in different administrative roles for the Division of Chemical Toxicology, the American Chemical Society. Notably, Dr. Suo has co-founded a biotech company in San Diego, California, and is in the process of founding the Drug Discovery Institute at Florida State University. So far, Dr. Suo has won numerous awards, published 107 research articles, applied for four patents, and worked on the early development of two blockbuster antiviral drugs. He has trained over 80 people including postdocs, graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students.
Suo Lab Website
1982-1986 B.S. Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
1986-1989 M.S. Physical Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
1992-1997 Ph.D. Biological Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
1998-2000 Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, MA
Editorial Board, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2017-present)
Editorial Board, Chemical Research in Toxicology (2013-present)
Editorial Board, F1000 Research (2012-present)
Editorial Board, Science China (Chemistry) (2011-2017
Editorial Board, Journal of Nucleic Acids (2010-2017)
Guest Editor, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2011-2013)
President, the Chinese-American Chemistry & Chemical Biology Professors Association in USA (2012-2016)
Secretary, Division of Chemical Toxicology, American Chemical Society (1/12016-12/31/2017)
Treasurer-Elect, Division of Chemical Toxicology, American Chemical Society (1/1/2020-12/31/2021)
Scientific Review Committees
Ad hoc reviewer, the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (2004, 2005)
Ad hoc Reviewer, the Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) Program, the Department of Health, Pennsylvania (2007)
Ad hoc Reviewer, Carolinas Medical Center for Multidisciplinary Research Grant Program of North Carolina Biotechnology Center (2008)
Ad hoc Reviewer, Kentucky Lung Cancer Research Program (2010)
Ad hoc Reviewer, the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, China (2011, 2013, 2017)
Ad hoc Reviewer, JSC "National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation”, Republic of Kazakhstan (2015)
Panel member, the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Departmental Multi-User Instrumentation (CRIF-MU) program, the National Science Foundation (2007)
Panel member, Mechanisms of Inheritance Panel, the National Science Foundation (2012)
Ad hoc Reviewer, different panels of the Biomolecular Systems Cluster, the National Science Foundation (2005-present)
Panel member, NIH Special Emphasis Panel, ZRG1 BCMB-D (2011)
Panel member, NIH Special Emphasis Panel, ZRG1 AARR-K (2016)
Ad hoc reviewer, Study Section MSFE, the National Institutes of Health (2006-2012)
Regular Panel member, Study Section MSFE/MSFA, the National Institutes of Health (2013-2017)
2018 Eminent Professor and Dorean and John Blackmon Chair in Biomedical Science, Florida State University
2017 OKeanos-CAPA Senior Investigator Award
2013 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2011-present Faculty Member, Faculty 1000
2009 Distinguished Faculty Award from the Chinese-American Chemistry & Chemical Biology Professors Association in USA
2007 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring
2006 Dean’s Award for Classroom Teaching for Faculty
2005 National Science Foundation Career Award
1998 The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship
American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Biophysical Society, American Chemical Society, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Society for Microbiology, American Society for Virology
The research in the Suo Laboratory uses multi-disciplinary methods, including pre-steady state kinetics, single molecule methods, and high resolution structure determination, to elucidate mechanisms of DNA/RNA synthesis, DNA lesion bypass, and base excision repair. His laboratory also use these advanced methods to mechanistically investigate gene editing enzymes including CRISPR/Cas9, Cpf1, and Cas13a and use protein engineering methods to modify these enzymes in order to minimize their off-target issues. Furthermore, the Suo laboratory investigate inhibitory mechanisms of FDA-approved drugs and develop novel antiviral and anticancer drugs. His group also uses live imaging to investigate exosome fusion with mammalian cells.
Publications in 2017 and 2018 (*corresponding author)
Raper, A. T., Stephenson, A., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Sharpening the scissors: Mechanistic details of CRISPR/Cas9 improve understanding and inspire future research”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Perspective, 140, 11142-11152. Featured in JACS Spotlights
Raper, A. T., Reed, A., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Kinetic Mechanism of DNA Polymerases: Contributions of Conformational Dynamics and a Third Divalent Metal Ion”, Chem. Review, 118, 6000-6025.
Gadkari, V., Harvey, S., Raper, A. T., Chu, W.-T., Wang, J., Wysocki, V., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Investigation of Sliding DNA Clamp Dynamics by Single-Molecule Fluorescence, Mass Spectrometry, and Structure-Based Modeling”, Nucleic Acids Res. 46, 3103-3118.
Stephenson, A., Raper, A. T., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Bidirectional Degradation of DNA Cleavage Products Catalyzed by CRISPR/Cas9”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., article, 140, 3743-3750. Featured in JACS Spotlights and highlighted by F1000.
Raper, A. T., Stephenson, A., and Suo, Z.* (2018) “Functional Insights Revealed by the Kinetic Mechanism of CRISPR/Cas9”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., article, 140, 2971-2984. Featured in JACS Spotlights and highlighted by F1000.
Kimsey, I. J., Szymanski, E. S., Zahurancik, W. J., Shakya, A., Chu, C.-C., Sathyamoorthy, B., Suo, Z.*, and Al-Hashimi, H. M.* (2018) “Dynamic basis for dG•dT misincorporation via tautomerization and ionization", article, Nature 554, 195-201. Highlighted by Nature and more than 50 worldwide media organizations.
Campbell, B.B., Light, N., Fabrizio, D., Zatzman, M., Fuligni, F., de Borja, R., Davidson, S., Edwards, M., Elvin, J.A., Hodel, K.P., Zahurancik, W.J., Suo, Z., Lipman, T., Wimmer, K., Kratz, C.P., Bowers, D.C., Laetsch, T.W., Dunn, G.P., Johanns, T.M., Grimmer, M.R., Smirnov, I.V., Larouche, V., Samuel, D., Bronsema, A., Osborn, M., Stearns, D., Raman, P., Cole, K.A., Storm, P.B., Yalon, M., Opocher, E., Mason, G., Thomas, G.A., Sabel, M., George, B., Ziegler, D.S., Lindhorst, S., Issai, V.M., Constantini, S., Toledano, H., Elhasid, R., Farah, R., Dvir, R., Dirks, P., Huang, A., Galati, M.A., Chung, J., Ramaswamy, V., Irwin, M.S., Aronson, M., Durno, C., Taylor, M.D., Rechavi, G., Maris, J.M., Bouffet, E., Hawkins, C., Costello, J.F., Meyn, M.S., Pursell, Z.F., Malkin, D., Tabori, U.*, and Shlien, A.* (2017) Comprehensive analysis of hypermutation in human cancer. Cell. 171, 1042-1056. Highlighted by Cell and many worldwide media organizations.
Tokarsky, E. J., Wallenmeyer, P. C., Phi, K. K., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Significant impact of divalent metal ions on the fidelity, sugar selectivity, and drug incorporation efficiency of human PrimPol”, DNA Repair, 49, 51-59.
Reed, A., Vyas, R., Raper, A. T., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Structural Insights into the Post-Chemistry Steps of Nucleotide Incorporation Catalyzed by a DNA Polymerase”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 465-471.
Raper, A. T., Reed, A., Gadkari, V., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Advances in Structural and Single-Molecule Methods for Investigating DNA Lesion Bypass and Repair Polymerases”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 260-269.
Wang, Y., Jin, F., Wang, Q., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Long-term survival of AIDS patients treated with only traditional Chinese medicine”, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 90, 90-92. Highlighted by worldwide media organizations.
Gowda, P., Suo, Z., and Spratt, T.* (2017) “Honokiol inhibits DNA polymerases ß and ? and increases bleomycin sensitivity of human cancer cells”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 715-725.
Lee, E., Fowler, J. D., Suo, Z., and Wu, Z.* (2017) “Backbone assignment of the binary complex of the full length Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA Polymerase IV and DNA”, Biomolecular NMR Assignments, 11, 39-43.
Stephenson, A., Taggart, D., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Non-catalytic, N-terminal Domains of Human DNA Polymerase Lambda Affect Its Cellular Localization and DNA Damage Response”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 1240-1249.
Gowda, P., Krzeminski, J., Amin, S., Suo, Z., and Spratt, T.* (2017) “Mutagenic Replication of N2-dG benzo[a]pyrene adduct by E. coli DNA polymerase I and Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase IV”, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 30, 1168-1176.
Vyas, R., Reed, A., Raper, A. T., and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Structural basis for the D-stereoselectivity of human DNA polymerase ß”, Nucleic Acids Res. 45, 6228-6237.
Wu, J., Wang, P., Li, L., Williams, N., Zahurancik, W., You, C., Wang, J., Suo, Z., and Wang, Y.* (2017) “Replication studies of carboxymethylated DNA lesions in human cells”, Nucleic Acids Res. 45, 7276-7284.
Reed, A. and Suo, Z.* (2017) “Time-dependent extension from an 8-oxoguanine lesion by human DNA polymerase beta”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 9684-9690.