Yuanxiang Lao

Dr. Lao earned his Ph.D. in Genetics from Peking Union Medical College from September 2012 to June 2016. He conducted postdoctoral research at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, affiliated with Nanjing University Medical School, from September 2019 to August 2023. He served as an Assistant Research Fellow at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from September 2023 to August 2025, and has been a Distinguished Research Fellow at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, since December 2025. Dr. Lao has conducted systematic research in proteomics and post-translational modifications. He was the first to employ 4D label-free proteomics to observe the expression changes of downstream candidate targets upon crotonylation modification, establishing its inhibitory role in enzymatic activity regulation. He found that GCDH can remodel the anti-tumor microenvironment—predominantly by NK cells, with M1-type macrophages and activated CD8+ T cells as auxiliary components—through the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), and that its downregulation further increases the proportion of PD-1+CD8+ T cells (Journal of Hepatology, 2024). He also generated the landscape of nine major types of protein post-translational modifications in hepatocellular carcinoma, revealing their regulatory patterns. His findings demonstrated that most phosphorylation sites are located in intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), exhibiting high specificity and low affinity, whereas most acylation sites reside in folded regions, indicating that PTM distribution in HCC is site-specific and closely linked to protein secondary structure. Succinylation and multiple acylation sites were found to be enriched in proteins containing the RNA recognition motif 1 (RRM1) domain, with RNA splicing being a key feature of this protein subset (Molecular Cancer, 2024).

Selected publications:
1. Lao, Yuanxiang#; Jin, Yirong#; Wu, Songfeng; Fang#, Ting; Wang, Qiang; Sun, Longqin; Sun, Beicheng; Deciphering a profiling based on multiple post-translational modifications functionally associated regulatory patterns and therapeutic opportunities in human hepatocellular carcinoma, Molecular Cancer, 2024, 23 (1): 283.
2. Yuanxiang Lao#; Xiaohan Cui#; Zhu Xu#; Hongyao Yan;# Zechuan Zhang; Zhenwei Zhang; Longpo Geng; Binghua Li; Yijun Lu; Qifei Guan; Xiaohong Pu; Suwen Zhao; Jiapeng Zhu; Xihu Qin; Beicheng Sun; Glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase suppresses tumor progression and shapes an anti-tumor microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma, Journal of Hepatology, 2024, 81 (5): 847-861.
3. 3. Xiaohan Cui; Xiao Yun; Meiling Sun; Renzhi Li; Xiajie Lyu; Yuanxiang Lao*; Wenbin Yu*; Xihu Qin*; HMGCL-induced β-hydroxybutyrate production attenuates hepatocellular carcinoma via DPP4-mediated ferroptosis susceptibility, Hepatology International, 2023 (17): 377-392.
4. Yuanxiang Lao#; Yanyan Li#; Wei Wang; Liangliang Ren; Xiaohong Qian; Fuchu He*; Xinguo Chen*; Ying Jiang*; A Cytological Atlas of the Human Liver Proteome from PROTEOMESKY- LIVERHu 2.0, a Publicly Available Database, Journal of Proteome Research, 2022, 21 (8): 1916-1929.
5. Yuanxiang Lao, Yanyan Li, Ping Zhang, Qianqian Shao, Weiran Lin, Bintao Qiu, Yongzhuang Lv et al. Targeting endothelial Erk1/2-Akt axis as a regeneration strategy to bypass fibrosis during chronic liver injury in mice. Molecular Therapy 26, 12 (2018): 2779-2797.