Ren Lai

Research Direction: Functional Proteomics of Natural Medicines
Direction 1: Animal toxins and functional diversity. Conducting multi-omics analysis of toxins, identifying toxin molecular types and abundances, and constructing databases of venomous animal venom resources. Studying how animal toxins exert predation or defense functions by interfering with basic life systems such as the nervous, immune, circulatory, respiratory, and motor systems of prey or predators.
Direction 2: Species interactions and co-evolution mediated by animal toxins. Studying the action targets and co-evolution of toxin-driven intraspecific and interspecific competition. Investigating how toxins are utilized by third parties (such as microorganisms) for survival adaptation, revealing the complex ecological roles of toxins.
Direction 3: Using animal toxins as tools to explore physiological and pathological mechanisms and develop innovative drugs. Using toxins to explore the physiological and pathological mechanisms of animals and humans in perceiving and responding to temperature, pain, high altitude, as well as thrombosis, infection, depression, chronic inflammation, etc., and discovering and researching innovative drugs based on new mechanisms.

1. Fang M, Li Y, Liao Z, Wang G, Cao Q, Li Y, Duan Y, Han Y, Deng X, Wu F, Kamau PM, Lu Q, Lai R. Lipopolysaccharide-binding protein expression is increased by stress and inhibits monoamine synthesis to promote depressive symptoms. Immunity. 2023;56(3):620-634.e11.
2. Jin L, Jiang BG, Yin Y, Guo J, Jiang JF, Qi X, Crispell G, Karim S, Cao WC, Lai R. Interference with LTβR signaling by tick saliva facilitates transmission of Lyme disease spirochetes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022;119(47):e2208274119.