The research of the Shan research group interfaces between chemistry and biology to try to understand fundamental biological processes at the level of biochemical and biophysical principles. The group focuses on the following questions:

How do cells efficiently and accurately sort all its proteins to the correct subcellular destinations?

What are the molecular principles of recognition and regulation that underlie such complex biological phenomena?

The attention of the group currently focuses on a pair of molecular adapters - the signal recognition particle (SRP) and the SRP receptor (SR) - that deliver newly synthesized proteins to particular membrane systems within the cell. This process is responsible for the sorting of all the ER resident and secretory proteins within the cell (accounting for roughly one third of cellular proteins) and is essential to establish and maintain the amazing degree of order and organization required to sustain life.

Source:  http://cce.caltech.edu/content/shu-ou-shan