The study was jointly advised by Professor Hao Wu from Harvard University and Professor Yongqing Li from the University of Michigan, and revealed a signal pathway for activating NLRP3 and the pyrin inflammasome mediated by histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6). The mechanism of this signal pathway is similar to the formation of aggresomes in the process of protein degradation, which suggests the dual role of microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) in the activation and inhibition of inflammasomes, and provides a new target for the treatment of diseases mediated by inflammasomes.

Tian Yuzi was enrolled in the 8-year joint training doctoral program offered by Central South University and the University of Michigan from 2017 to 2020. Supervised by Professors Yongqing Li and Alam B Hasan, she has been engaged in the research on infection and immunity. Up to now, four of her articles with her as the first author or co-first author have been published or received by journals such asScienceandJCI Insight. The laboratory of the University of Michigan has maintained good cooperation with Xiangya’s 8-year joint training doctoral program, and we have jointly trained 4 outstanding students, Pan Baihong, Deng Qiufang, Tian Yuzi and Wu Zhenyu, who have published a total of 12 articles as first authors or co-first authors.

The research team under the guidance of Professor Zhang Weiru has been focusing on the research on renal fibrosis and lupus nephritis-immunity for a long time. It has established long-term and steady cooperation with numerous world-class laboratories such as the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of South Carolina, and has trained several PhD students such as Xie Tingting, Xue Dan and Wang Xuan, whose articles about their research results have been published by leading international journals such asCirculation Research(IF: 15.013), theJournal of the American Society of Nephrology(IF: 8.547) andHypertension(IF: 6.873).