Welcome to the Zhu Lab

Comparative Endocrinology, Comparative Physiology, Reproductive Physiology, and Developmental Endocrinology

About the Zhu Lab

The Lab has a broad interest in comparative endocrinology, comparative physiology,  reproductive physiology, and developmental endocrinology, including the physiological functions and molecular mechanisms of hormones and their receptors. The current research interests of the lab focus on: 1) examining physiological functions and molecular mechanisms of pituitary hormones, especially roles of the prolactin/growth hormone superfamily in early development in vertebrates; 2) investigating non-genomic actions of steroids with a focus on physiological functions and signaling mechanisms of the membrane and nuclear progestin receptor family.

Fig. 1. Microphotographs showing melanosome-aggregation responses to the recombinant somatolactin β in skin of a representative scale.

Figure 2 Immunofluorescent localization of membrane progestin receptor (mPR) in zebrafish oocytes.

Fig. 3. Fluorescent microscopic images of representative larvae microinjected with growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL), somatolactin α (SLα) or somatolactin β (SLβ) transcript tagged with green fuorescence protein (GFP) at 24 h post fertilization.

Fig. 4. Representative microphotographs of prolactin (PRL) knockdown larvae compared to standard morpholino control injected larvae.