Research Fields

Professor Honghong Yao has been dedicated to major nervous system diseases that cause serious harm to human health stroke and depression. She focuses on common pathomechanism of these two diseases-neuro inflammatory response and major problem of a lack of effectiveanti-inflammatory drugs and therapeutic targets, keeps updated with latest frontiers in molecular biology like epigenetics-non-coding and interprets the pathomechanism of major nervous system diseases from a new perspective, which provides new ideas and new potential drugs for disease diagnosis and treatment. She has published 98 papers (IF=447) on influential SCI journals such as Nat Commun, Blood, Mol Psychiatry, Autophagy, J Neurosci, etc. She is lead author or corresponding author of 47 papers (H index=22, 1957citations), and her papers have been cited by Nat Rev, Mol Cell, Trends Neurosci, etc. In addition, they have been highly recognized by autophagy expert MIT Shashi Bala and professor NIH Alexander Pletnev. Additionally, she has been also invited by Pharmacol Ther to write reviews, and her relating works have been rather favorably reviewed by Global Medical Discovery. She co-compiled 3 English neuroscience textbooks for American medical students.

Honor Reward

2018Jiangsu Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Leading Talent) Program, the 2nd Prize of Science & Technology Progress Award of Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, the 16th Jiangsu Province Youth Science & Technology Award

2017:1st Prize of Science & Technology Progress Award of Jiangsu Province

2016:Jiangsu Innovation & Entrepreneurship Talent Program

2015:Recruitment Program of Global Experts

2014:Jiangsu Six Talent Peaks Program

2013:NSFC National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars

2012:Jiangsu specially appointed professor

2010:Nicholas B. Badami Research Fellowship from Department of Pharmacology

andExperimentalTherapeutics ofUniversity of Nebraska Medical Center

2010年:UNMC New Investigator award from University of Nebraska Medical Center

2009:Awarded Young Investigator Travel Award for 16th The Conference on

Retrovirusesand Opportunistic Infections (CROI) Meeting


Academic Achievements

Professor Honghong Yao has been dedicated to major nervous system diseases that cause serious harm to human health-stroke and depression. She focuses on common pathomechanism of these two diseases-neuro-inflammatory response and major problem of a lack of effective anti-inflammatory drugs and therapeutic targets, keeps updated with latest frontiers in molecular biology like epigenetics-non-coding and interprets the pathomechanism of major nervous system diseases from a new perspective, which provides new ideas and new potential drugs for disease diagnosis and treatment. She has published 98 papers (IF=447) on influential SCI journals such as Nat Commun, Blood, Mol Psychiatry, Autophagy, J Neurosci, etc. She is lead author or corresponding author of 47 papers (H index=22, 1957 citations), and her papers have been cited by Nat Rev, Mol Cell, Trends Neurosci, etc. In addition, they have been highly recognized by autophagy expert MIT Shashi Bala and professor NIH Alexander Pletnev. Additionally, she has been also invited by Pharmacol Ther to write reviews, and her relating works have been rather favorably reviewed by Global Medical Discovery. She co-compiled 3 English neuroscience textbooks for American medical students.

Selected Publications:

1.Zhou, Zhenhua; Lu, Jianfei; Liu, Wen-Wu; Manaenko, Anatol; Hou, Xianhua; Mei, Qiyong; Huang, Jun-Long; Tang, Jiping; Zhang, John H; Yao, Honghong; Hu, Qin. Advances in stroke pharmacology.Pharmacology & therapeutics.(Epub)

2.Yuan Zhang, Longfei Du, Ying Bai, Bing Han, Cancan He, Liang Gong,Rongrong Huang, Ling Shen, Jie Chao, Pei Liu, Hongxing Zhang, Haisan, Zhang, Ling Gu, Junxu Li, Gang Hu, Chunming Xie, Zhijun Zhang,Honghong Yao. CircDYM ameliorates depressive-like behavior by targeting miR-9 to regulate microglial activation via HSP90 ubiquitination. Molecular Psychiatry. (in press)

3.Yang L, Han B, Zhang Y, Bai Y, Chao J, Hu G, Yao HH. Engagement of circular RNA HECW2 in the nonautophagic role of ATG5 implicated in the endothelial-mesenchymal transition. Autophagy. 2018;14(3):404-18. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2017.1414755.

4.Han B, Zhang Y, Zhang YH, Bai Y, Chen XF, Huang RR, Wu FF, Leng S, Chao J, Zhang JH, Hu G, Yao HH. Novel insight into circular RNA HECTD1 in astrocyte activation via autophagy by targeting MIR142-TIPARP: implications for cerebral ischemic stroke. Autophagy. 2018;14(7):1164-84. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2018.1458173.

5.Bai Y, Zhang Y, Han B, Yang L, Chen XF, Huang RR, Wu FF, Chao J, Liu P, Hu G, Zhang JH, Yao HH. Circular RNA DLGAP4 Ameliorates Ischemic Stroke Outcomes by Targeting miR-143 to Regulate Endothelial-Mesenchymal Transition Associated with Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity. Journal Of Neuroscience. 2018;38(1):32-50. doi: 10.1523/Jneurosci.1348-17.2017.

6.Han B, Chao J, Yao HH. Circular RNA and its mechanisms in disease: From the bench to the clinic. Pharmacology & therapeutics. 2018;187:31-44. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2018.01.010.

7.Huang RR, Zhang Y, Han B, Bai Y, Zhou RB, Gan GM, Chao J, Hu G, Yao HH. Circular RNA HIPK2 regulates astrocyte activation via cooperation of autophagy and ER stress by targeting MIR124-2HG. Autophagy. 2017;13(10):1722-41. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2017.1356975.

8.Zhang Y, Shen K, Bai Y, Lv X, Huang RR, Zhang W, Chao J, Nguyen LK, Hua J, Gan GM, Hu G, Yao HH. Mir143-BBC3 cascade reduces microglial survival via interplay between apoptosis and autophagy: Implications for methamphetamine-mediated neurotoxicity. Autophagy. 2016;12(9):1538-59. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2016.1191723.

9.Liu HJ, Fang SC, Wang W, Cheng YS, Zhang YM, Liao H, Yao HH, Chao J. Macrophage-derived MCPIP1 mediates silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis via autophagy. Particle and fibre toxicology. 2016;13. doi: ARTN 55

10.1186/s12989-016-0167-z.

10.Yao H, Ma R, Yang L, Hu G, Chen XF, Duan M, Kook Y, Niu F, Liao K, Fu MG, Hu G, Kolattukudy P, Buch S. MiR-9 promotes microglial activation by targeting MCPIP1. Nature communications. 2014;5. doi: Artn 4386

10.1038/Ncomms5386.

11.Yao HH, Yang YJ, Kim KJ, Bethel-Brown C, Gong N, Funa K, Gendelman HE, Su TP, Wang JQ, Buch S. Molecular mechanisms involving sigma receptor-mediated induction of MCP-1: implication for increased monocyte transmigration. Blood. 2010;115(23):4951-62. doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-01-266221.

12.Yao HH, Duan M, Buch S. Cocaine-mediated induction of platelet-derived growth factor: implication for increased vascular permeability. Blood. 2011;117(8):2538-47. doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-10-313593.