Prof. Yong-Tang Zheng, Principle Investigator, Deputy Director, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. AIDS prevention and control is the major national strategic needs. To carry out basic, forward-looking research and application, our research is mainly focused on HIV/AIDS studies, including anti-HIV drugs, the AIDS primate animal models, the mechanism of antiviral restriction factors TRIM5α to HIV infection , HIV Molecular Epidemiology in Mekong River region. Ten book chapters and more than 310 papers have been published, including 199 SCI papers in PNAS、AIDS、Nucleic Acids Res、J Immuol、Retrovirology、JMC、JAIDS ect. Application and joint applications for 50 patents, 26 patents authorized. Six provincial and ministerial level award were gained, including The 1st Yunnan province Science and Technology Progress Award and The 2nd Natural Science Award. 20 people obtained PhD and 20 people obtained Master degree.
Email: zhengyt@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Research Fields and Progress in 2013
The major research interests are: (1) Study anti-HIV activities and mechanisms of compounds, structure-activity relationship of lead compounds; (2) Establish non-human primate model for studying the immunopathogenic mechanism of HIV/AIDS and evaluating antiviral strategies and vaccines; (3) MHC genetics research in primates of China; (4) Study the restriction mechanism of antiviral restriction factors TRIM5α and TRIMCyp to HIV-1 infection; (5) HIV cross-border spread in Mekong River region, including molecular epidemiology and HIV resistance.
Main progresses in 2013: 1) Over 1000 compounds were studied for their anti-HIV-1 activity, and more than 50 compounds with highly anti-HIV-1 activities were found, FNC has been approved for clinical trials by CFDA; 2) Preclinical pharmacological evaluation in vitro of 3 anti-HIV drug candidates are being peformed; 3) 4 northern pig-tailed macaque were infected by HIV-1R3A and stHIV-1sv strains respectively; 4 ) 12 Chinese rhesus macaques were infected by SIV strain and their immune activation were inhibited by a CD24-Fc protein; 5) A HIV latent activator- LPS was used to activate the SHIVwhu in Chinese rhesus macaques; 6) A total of 21 full-length alleles in tree threw were detected for the first time; 7) A study about the relationship between multimerization and HIV-1 restriction of TRIMCyp was performed, and a new hypothesis about interaction between TRIMCyp and HIV-1 capsid was proposed.
Research Team
Laboratory Staff
Dr. Rui-Rui Wang, Associate Professor, wangrr02@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Ms. Liu-Meng Yang, Associate Professor, lmyang@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Dr. Gao-Hong Zhang, Assistant Professor, zhanggh@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Dr. Wei Pang, Assistant Professor, pangw@mail.kiz.ac.cn
Dr. Feng-Liang Liu, Assistant Professor, Rong-Hua Luo, Experimentalist
Graduate Students
Yan-Heng Zhou,, Xing-Jie Zhang, Lin Zhu, Zhi-Hong Yao, Jia-Wu Zhu , Xi-He Zhang , Ren-Rong Tian, Lin-Tao Zhang, Xiao-Liang Zhang , Hong-Yi Zheng, Ming-Xu Zhang, Meng-Ting Luo , Ai-Hua Lei，Cui-Lin Lu，Xing Chen， Dan Mu，Huan Chen
