He Huang

Researcher, doctoral supervisor, and principal investigator. His work focuses on novel protein post-translational modifications research. On one hand, he discovers novel protein post-translational modifications and their key regulatory factors, and reveals their mechanistic roles in disease progression by integrating clinical resources and data; on the other hand, he identifies the action targets of metabolically active natural product molecules and elucidates novel mechanisms by which they mediate phenotypes through post-translational modifications.

Representative research achievements:
(1) Discovery of novel protein modifications: discovered a completely new dynamic modification – lysine acetoacetylation and its regulatory enzyme HBO1, bringing new directions for innovative drug research based on epigenetic targets (Adv Sci, 2023);
(2) Revealing regulatory mechanisms of novel protein modifications: revealed key regulatory enzymes of lactylation, β-hydroxybutyrylation, benzoylation, and succinylation modifications, expanded their modification substrate spectra, and elucidated novel mechanisms by which these modifications couple metabolites such as lactate and ketone bodies with various cellular processes (Cell Metab, 2025; iScience, 2024; Cell Discov, 2023; Sci Adv, 2021);
(3) Exploring clinical translation of novel protein modifications: introduced novel modification omics into clinical research, systematically mapped the landscape of lactylation modifications in liver cancer tissues, revealed the key regulatory role of lactylation in liver cancer cell metabolism, and discovered that adenylate kinase 2 (AK2) can serve as a potential therapeutic target, providing new insights for targeted therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (Nat Metab, 2023);
(4) Elucidating novel drug targets and mechanisms: discovered HNF-1α as a potential new target for hyperlipidemia treatment, revealed the unique epigenetic regulatory mechanism of the berberine-class natural product lipid-lowering drug DC371739 mediating transcription factors and histone modifications, and identified PCSK9 and ANGPTL3 as biomarkers for monitoring the clinical efficacy of this drug (Cell Metab, 2022).

He has published 91 SCI papers in total and obtained 5 US patents. Among them, 47 papers were published as first or corresponding author (including co-authorship) in journals such as Cell, Cell Metab, Nat Metab, Mol Cell, Sci Adv, Nat Comm, and J Am Chem Soc. The total impact factor of his papers is 865.7, with over 10,600 citations.