Prof. Zhao-Yang Li

Principal Investigator

Research Directions
Development of original interference strategies for pathogenic targets in neurological diseases

Contact Information

Address: Fudan University, 2005 Songhu Road, Shanghai China 200438

Email: lizhaoyang@fudan.edu.cn

Dr. Zhao-Yang Li received his Ph.D. degree in Neurobiology from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 2020. He then worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the school of life sciences at Fudan University between 2020 and 2023. He is focus on the drug development strategy of neurological diseases and undruggable targets. He joined the Institutes of Brain Science at Fudan University as a principal investigator in July 2023.

Enrollment Major
Neurobiology

Research Work

Many neurological diseases are caused by altered protein levels (abnormal accumulation, loss of function or activity), abnormal post-translational modifications, or altered localization. Selective manipulation of specific proteins that cause these diseases is crucial for studying their functional mechanisms or for clinical intervention. Our lab is interested in establishing a small molecule manipulation system for these pathogenic targets, linking the target with the cell's endogenous regulatory machinery (including degradation, stabilization, post-translational modification, etc.) or localization system (such as cellular Internal sorting and transport system) bound together, change the fate of the target, realize its manipulation, and finally achieve the purpose of treating the disease.

Selected Publications

1. Li ZY#, Wang C#, Wang ZY#, Zhu CG#, Li J, Sha T, Ma LX, Gao C, Yang Y, Sun YM, Wang J, Sun XL, Lu CQ, Difiglia M, Mei YN, Ding C, Luo SQ, Dang YJ, Ding Y*, Fei YY*, Lu BX*(2019). Allele-selective lowering of mutant HTT protein by HTT-LC3 linker compounds. Nature. 575(7781): 203-209 (10 remarkable papers from 2019)

2. Li ZY#*, Wang ZY#, Zhong C#, Zhang H, Liu R, An P, Ma ZQ, Lu JM, Pan CF, Zhang ZL, Cao ZY, Hu JY, Xing D, Fei YY*, Ding Y*, Lu BX*(2024). P53 upregulation by USP7-engaging molecular glues. Sci Bull. 69(12):1936-1953

3. Pan CF, Liu Y, Wang LY, Fan WY, Ni YZ, Zhang XF, Wu D, Li CY, Li J, Li ZY*, Liu R*, Hu CL*. (2024). The Kv2.2 channel mediates the inhibition of Prostaglandin E2 on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in pancreatic β-cells. eLife. 13:RP97234

4. Li ZY, Zhu CG, Ding Y, Fei YY, Lu BX*(2020). ATTEC: a potential new approach to target proteinopathies. Autophagy. 16(1):185-187

5. Li ZY*, Dong WH, Zhang XY, Lu JM, Mei YA, Hu CL*(2022). Protein Kinase C Controls the Excitability of Cortical Pyramidal Neurons by Regulating Kv2.2 Channel Activity. Neurosci Bull. 38(2):135-148