Jinyu Zhang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
jinyu.zhang@utoledo.edu
EDUCATION:
1997听 听 听 听 听 听 M.S.听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听Genetics听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听Wuhan University,
Hubei, China
2005听 听 听 听 听 听Ph.D.听 听 听 听 听 听 听Biochemistry听听听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 Korean Research Institute
of Bioscience and Biotechnology and
听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听
听 Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea
2010听 听 听 听 听 听 Post Doc听 听 听 Cancer Biology听 听 听 听 听 听 听Medical University of South
Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dr. Zhang received her Ph.D. from the Korean Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology and Chungnam National University, where she trained as an animal scientist. Her doctoral research focused on embryonic development, offering critical insights into how fertilized eggs grow into embryos. This work contributes to the broader understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in cancer initiation and progression, as many biological processes during embryogenesis鈥攕uch as proliferation, adhesion, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration, and differentiation鈥攁re regulated by growth factors and their receptors, which are also implicated in cancer biology.
As a postdoctoral fellow in immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Zhang pursued multiple lines of research. She explored the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in inflammasome activation and IL-1尾 production, identifying a positive feedback loop that exacerbates inflammation and leads to liver steatosis and colitis in both in vitro systems and transgenic mouse models in vivo.
Her interests also extended to cancer immunotherapy. She investigated therapeutic antibodies targeting soluble NKG2D ligands, combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-1, and anti-CTLA-4), for the treatment of prostate cancer. To evaluate these strategies, she utilized a novel humanized bi-transgenic (bi-Tg) mouse model expressing both native human NKG2D ligand (MICB) and a membrane-bound variant (MICB.A2) in the prostate of TRAMP (transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate) mice, which develop spontaneous prostate tumors. Her findings revealed that these therapies also influenced liver and lung metastasis and colitis within the humanized model. Her studies were published in several high-impact peer-reviewed Journals.
Dr. Zhang鈥檚 research aims to establish novel strategies for clinically practical exosome-mediated
silencing of DSTYK to attenuate or even reverse liver fibrogenesis. Liver fibrogenesis
refers to the development of a large amount of scar tissue within the liver; if not
stopped, it will eventually develop into life-threatening cirrhosis and liver cancer.
PUBLICATIONS:
STUDENT OPENINGS:听 Not accepting Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D., and M.S.M.D. students
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