Jinyu Zhang, DVM, PhD
Graduate: Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Korea
Undergraduate: , Daejeon Chungnam National University, Republic of Korea.
BRIEF BIO
Dr. Zhang received her Ph.D. degree from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, where she learned and accumulated biomedical research experience and animal science. Her area of expertise is in gene expression regulation and biological function analysis of several key regulators in preimplantation embryo development using various animal models. During her postdoctoral training at the Medical University of South Carolina, she received advanced training in microbiology and immunology fields. During that time, she focused on investigating the therapeutic potential and mechanisms of ER stress-induced inflammasome activation and IL-1β production that can generate a positive feedback loop to amplify inflammatory response eventually leading to liver steatosis and injury. She discovered that ER stress promotes inflammasome activation and IL-1β processing in both hepatocytes and Kupffer cells/macrophages in a spontaneous colitis mouse model. In addition, using in vitro cellular models and in vivo mouse models, she found that the lack of caspase-1 that functions as an inflammasome activation marker ameliorated the pyroptosis of hepatocytes induced by ER stress. Later on, she focused on studying antibodies targeting soluble NKG2D ligands using a “humanized” bi-transgenic (bi-Tg) mouse model in which native human NKG2D ligand MHC class I polypeptide-related sequence B (MICB) and the engineered membrane restricted MICB (MICB.A2) are expressed in the spontaneous prostate adenocarcinoma in the transgenic mouse prostate (TRAMP) model. Her studies were published in several high-impact peer-reviewed Journals.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Zhang joined ETSU Quillen College of Medicine in 2019 and started to investigate the role of MDSC-mediated immunosuppression in HBV- or HIV-infected individuals. She was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2021 and continues to carry out this line of research. To improve the therapeutic outcomes, she has also developed an exosome-based system for in vivo drug-specific delivery (targeted therapy) in HIV or HBV-infected humanized pre-clinical models. She has established an HIV infection animal model using humanized mice and will characterize this mouse model for HBV or HIV therapeutic studies. She has recently designed and tested a series of gRNA/Cas9 HBV gene-editing RNPs and selected the most specific and potent gRNA/Cas9 RNP drugs for reducing HBV cccDNA and transcripts in HBV-infected cells using in vitro systems. Currently, she is evaluating the capability of these exosome-based HBV gene-editing gRNA/Cas9 RNPs (herein called Exo-HBV-Eliminator) to edit hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently closed circular (ccc) DNA to inhibit HBV replication in hepatocytes using both cellular and animal models in order to define their biophysical/biological properties and therapeutic practicality in HBV infected or HBV-HIV co-infected patients.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
1. Zhang J*(corresponding author), Zhang Y, Khanal S, Cao, D, Zhao J, Dang X, Nguyen LNT, Schank M, Wu XY, Jiang Y, Ning S, Wang L, Elgazzar M, Moorman JP, Yao, ZQ*. Synthetic gRNA/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein targeting HBV DNA inhibits viral replication. J. Med. Virol. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.28952.
2. Weaver JW, Zhang J, Rojas J, Musich PR, Yao, Z, Jiang Y*. The application of exosomes in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences. 2022 Nov 10; 9: 1022725.
2. Ogbu SC, Rojas S, Weaver J, Musich PR, Zhang J, Yao Z, Jiang Y*. DSTYK enhances chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer cells. Cells, 2022 11(1), 97; 11010097
3. Zhang J, Ogbu SC, Musich PR, Thewke DP, Yao ZQ, Jiang Y*. The contribution of endothelial-mesenchymal transition to atherosclerosis. Int. J. Transl. Med. 2021 June; 1(1):39-54.
4. Ogbu SC, Musich P, Zhang J, Yao Z, Howe P, Jiang Y*. The role of Disabled-2 in diseases. Gene. Feb 15: 769: 145202, 2021.
5. Zhang J, Miller Z, Musich P, Thomas A, Yao Z, Xie Q, Howe P, Jiang Y*. DSTYK promotes metastasis and chemoresistance via EMT in colorectal cancer. Frontiers in Pharmacology. September 02, 2020.
6. Jinyu Zhang, Pablo Saenz-Lopez Larrocha, Bin Zhang, Derek Wainwright, Payal Dhar, Jennifer Wu. Antibody targeting tumor-derived soluble NKG2D ligand sMIC provides dual co-stimulation of CD8 T cells and enables sMIC+ tumors to respond to PD1/PD-L1 blockade therapy. Journal for immunotherapy of cancer. J Immunother Cancer. 2019; 26; 7(1):223. PubMed PMID: 32517713; PubMed PMCID: PMC7285527.
7. *Bal Krishna Chand Thakuri, *Jinyu Zhang (co-first author), Juan Zhao, Lam N. Nguyen, Lam N.T. Nguyen, Sushant Khanal, Dechao Cao, Xindi Dang, Madison Schank, Xiao Y. Wu, Zheng D. Morrison, Mohamed EI Gazzar, Zhengke Li, Shunbin Ning, Ling Wang, Jonathan P. Moorman, and **Zhi Q. Yao. HCV-Associated Exosomes Upregulate RUNXOR and RUNX1 Expressions to Promote MDSC Expansion and Suppressive Functions through STAT3-miR124 Axis. Cells. 2020; 9(12), 271. PubMed PMID: 33353065; PubMed PMCID: PMC7766103.
8. Khanal S, Cao, D, Zhang J, Zhang Y, Schank M, Dang X, Nguyen LNT, Wu XY, Jiang Y, Ning S, Zhao J, Wang L, Elgazzar M, Moorman JP, Yao, ZQ. Synthetic gRNA/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein inhibits HIV reactivation and replication. Viruses. 2022; 14(9):1902.
9. Jinyu Zhang, *Bal Krishna Chand Thakuri, Juan Zhao, Lam N. Nguyen, Lam N.T. Nguyen, Dechao Cao, Xindi Dang, Sushant Khanal, Madison Schank, Xiao Y. Wu, Zheng D. Morrison, Mohamed El Gazzar, Zhengke Li, Shunbin Ning, Ling Wang, Jonathan P. Moorman, and Zhi Q. Yao. LncRNA HOTAIRM1 promotes MDSC expansion and suppressive functions through up-regulating HOXA1 expression during latent HIV infection. AIDS. 2020. PubMed PMID: 33048872; PubMed PMCID: PMC7674250.
10. Jinyu Zhang, Bal Krishna Chand Thakuri, Juan Zhao, Lam N. Nguyen, Lam N.T. Nguyen, Dechao Cao, Xindi Dang, Sushant Khanal, Madison Schank, Xiao Y. Wu, Zheng D. Morrison, Mohamed El Gazzar, Zhengke Li, Shunbin Ning, Ling Wang, Jonathan P. Moorman, and Zhi Q. Yao. Long Noncoding RNA RUNXOR Promotes Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell Expansion and Functions via Enhancing Immunosuppressive Molecule Expressions during Latent HIV Infection. J Immunol. 2021; 206 (9):2052-2060. PubMed PMID: 33820854.
10. Thakuri BKC*, Zhang J*, Zhao J, Nguyen LN, Nguyen LNT, Schank M, et al. HCV-Associated Exosomes Upregulate RUNXOR and RUNX1 Expressions to Promote MDSC Expansion and Suppressive Functions through STAT3-miR124 Axis. Cells. 2020;9(12). PubMed PMID: 33353065; PMCID: PMC7766103.
11. Zhang JY, Zhang K Z, Li ZH, Guo BC. ER Stress-induced Inflammasome Activation Contributes to Hepatic Inflammation and Steatosis. J Clin Cell Immunol. 2016; 7 (5): 457. PubMed PMID: 27942420; PubMed PMCID: PMC5146989.
Complete List of Published Work (more than 30 papers) in My Bibliography:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1Dofij_AGcGoSh/bibliography/public/