Dr. Yubin Zhou Receives NIGMS R35 Award for Calcium Signaling Research
Every cell in the body uses calcium as a messenger. Tiny shifts in calcium levels help cells grow, respond to stress, and talk to one another. When those signals go wrong, disease can follow. At the Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT) at Texas A&M University, Dr. Yubin Zhou is mapping how that messaging is controlled at a precise scale—and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has just given his program major new support to keep going.
On July 7, 2026, Texas A&M University Sponsored Research Services confirmed that it had received an award document from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for Dr. Zhou's R35 project, 1R35GM163674-01, titled Molecular control of calcium signaling at membrane contact sites.
What This Research Is About
The project focuses on membrane contact sites: specialized places inside cells where different membranes come into close contact and exchange information and materials. At those junctions, calcium signals are carefully timed and directed. Dr. Zhou's work asks how that control works at the molecular level—how proteins and membranes shape the message, and how those controls operate in living systems.
That kind of basic biology matters because calcium signaling sits underneath so many cell decisions. Understanding the machinery is how scientists build a clearer foundation for later studies of health and disease, including cancer biology, which is a central focus of Dr. Zhou's center at IBT.
What an NIGMS R35 Award Supports
NIGMS is the NIH institute that funds basic biomedical research—the science of how life works at the molecular and cellular level. An R35 award supports an investigator's research program over time, rather than funding only a single, narrowly defined experiment. In practice, that means the laboratory can pursue a coherent line of questions about calcium signaling and membrane contact sites with continuity across years of work.
For Year 1 of this award, the budget period begins September 1, 2026.
Who Is Leading the Work
Dr. Zhou is professor and director of the Center for Translational Cancer Research at IBT. He holds appointments in the Department of Translational Medical Sciences in the Texas A&M University College of Medicine and is a Chancellor EDGES Fellow and Presidential Impact Fellow. His laboratory at IBT develops tools and models to study how cells sense and control signals—work that has also drawn national media attention for projects such as caffeine-responsive genetic switches, covered previously on IBT Stories and in Vital Record.
This R35 award strengthens that program at IBT in Houston's Texas Medical Center, where basic discovery and translational cancer research sit side by side.
Learn More
Faculty profile: Dr. Yubin Zhou at IBT | Laboratory: thezhoulaboratory.org