Xiaoxu Jiang

Our research is focused on structure and function relationship of membrane transporters in the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS). Transporters in the MFS family utilize the free energy released from downhill movement of ion (H+ or Na+) in response of an electrical chemical ion gradient to catalyze uphill translocation of their substrates across the cytoplasmic cell membrane. These transporters are involved in the uptake of many important biological substrates in cells, including carbohydrates, amino acids, metabolites, and ions, etc. We use multiple biochemical and biophysical approaches to study substrate recognition and protein dynamics of these transporters in their transport cycle.