Prof. Yun Zhang, born in July 1963, Kunming, Yunnan, China, got his bachelor’s degree from East China University of Science and Technology in 1984. He worked as a research assistant in Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) from 1984 to 1987, and after then he became a graduated student of CAS. As a PhD student of a joint training program and a postdoctoral fellow, he worked in Pasteur Institute at Paris from 1991 to 1995 under the direction from Prof. Cassian Bon. He was given his PhD by supervisor Prof. Li-Ming Shi (an academician of CAS) in 1992. After graduation, he also worked in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 1998 to 1999 as a visiting scholar. He started to work as a full professor from 1997 and a Principal Investigator of CAS from 1999, respectively. Now, he is the vice-director of the academic committee of KIZ, CAS, the editorial member of TOXICON, the official journal of the International Society on Toxicology (IST), the associate editor-in-chief of Zoological Research, the council expert of Chinese FDA, and the director of the Toxicology committee of Chinese Society of Toxicology.
Email: zhangy@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Research Fields and Progress in 2013
Research Fields: We are interested in deciphering the human diseases mechanisms by using animal toxin as natural probes and developing novel animal toxins into clinical drugs.
Progress in 2013: 1) Based on our previous findings that proteinase-activated receptors (PARs) are the receptors of trefoil factors, by using the Bm-TFF2 as a molecular probe, we found that prohibitins are involved in the regulations of PARs, which have fulfilled our knowledge of the regulations of G-protein coupled receptors; 2) Based on the clinical analysis, we found that TFFs are the molecular markers of kidney injury; 3) The results of transcriptome sequencing of the skin and blood of Bombina maxima revealed that amphibians possess powerful immune systems, including native immune systems and adaptive immune systems; 4) The findings that the natural anti-microbial peptide OH-CATH30 can regulate immune system and prevent the occurrence of sepsis have provided the basic data for developing OH-CATH30 into clinical drugs.
Research Team ：
Laboratory Staff：
Dr. Wen-Hui Lee, Associate Professor, leewh@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Dr. Yang -Xiang, Assistant Professor, Yang_xiang000@hotmail.com
Dr. Sheng-An Li, Assistant Professor, Lishengan@163.com
Dr. Yan-Jie Wang, Assistant Professor, 729972420@qq.com
Ms. Hui-Fen Wang, Secretary, 2874907454@qq.com
Graduate Students:
Feng Zhao, Xin-Wang Yang, Xiao-Long Guo, Jie Liu, Kai-Feng Zhou, Yue Zhang, Yu-Yan Zhang, Long Liu, Lin-Yan Wang, Xin-Qiang Lan, Yu-Ling Shi
