Education

2006-2010，School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, B.S.

2010-2016，School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Ph.D.

Professional Experience

2020-2022，University of California, Berkeley, Postdoc.

2017-2026, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Assistant Professor

2026-present, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Associate Professor

Research Area

Dr. Yingying Zhang has been trained in Prof. Jiahuai Han’s lab for more than eight years and now she works as assistant professor in Han Lab. Dr. Jiahuai Han is known for the discovery of the p38 signaling pathway, one of the most important pathways in intracellular signaling transduction. This pathway plays important roles in many biological processes including cell cycle regulation, cell proliferation, cell differentiation and senescence, as well as immunity, development and tumorigenesis. Another current focus of HanLab is molecular mechanisms of programmed necrosis and theimmune responseselicited. Han Lab is one of the laboratories that discovered the role of RIP3 and GSDMD in necroptosis and pyroptosis, respectively. Han Lab is also interested in recognition and tolerance of invasive viruses and tumor cellsby the immune system. The research in Han Lab will lead to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis and host defense against foreign infections and sterile pathological changes, and thus provides new ideas for the development of therapeutic intervention for related diseases.
For more information, please visit our webpage: hanlab.xmu.edu.cn or https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fgcjqnUAAAAJ&hl=zh-CN&oi=ao

Selected Publications (*Corresponding author, #co-first author)

1. Ma M#, Wang F#, Cui P#, Zhang Y#, Ma H, He Y, Cheng Y, Huang J, Wang J, Wu X, Yang H, Zheng R, Ma H, Cai Q, Wang L, Ge B*. RIOK2 kinase regulates the translocation of the FADD-RIPK1-Caspase-8 complex to the ER and the cleavage of Gasdermin D to drive pyroptosis. Nat Commun. 2025 Nov 17;16(1):10060. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65012-7. PMID: 41249793
2. Han T#, Ruan C#, Lin H, Zhang Y, Li L, Sun YH, Zhong CQ, Chen X, Huang K, Cao Y, Fan Z, Zhang H, Han J*, Zhang Y*. RIPK1 S161 phosphorylation promotes further autophosphorylation and cecal necroptosis in TNF-treated mice. J Exp Med. 2025 Dec 1;222(12):e20250277. doi: 10.1084/jem.20250277. Epub 2025 Sep 25. PMID: 40996440
3. Jin X#, Zhang B#, Sun Y#, Duan Y, Lu J, Liu J*, Han J*, Zhang Y*. Fluorescence Labeling to Visualize Low-Expressed Proteins in Zebrafish. J Vis Exp. 2025 Jan 24;(215). doi: 10.3791/67616. PMID: 39927661
4. Zhang Y, Han J*. A GSDMD agonist boosts specific antitumor immunity. Cell Res. 2025 Apr;35(4):235-236. doi: 10.1038/s41422-024-01051-x. PMID: 39538026
5. Hong M, Wu X, He P, Peng R, Li L, Wu SQ, Zhao J, Han A, Zhang Y*, Han J*, Yang ZH*. Residue Y362 is crucial for FLIPL to impart catalytic activity to pro-caspase-8 to suppress necroptosis. Cell Rep. 2024 Nov 26;43(11):114966. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114966. Epub 2024 Nov 8. PMID: 39520684
6. Gao X#, Teng T#, Liu Y, Ai T, Zhao R, Fu Y, Zhang P*, Han J*, Zhang Y*. Anthrax lethal toxin and tumor necrosis factor-α synergize on intestinal epithelia to induce mouse death. Protein Cell. 2024 Feb 1;15(2):135-148. doi: 10.1093/procel/pwad050. PMID: 37855658
7. Liu J, Li W, Jin X, Lin F, Han J*, Zhang Y*. Optimal tagging strategies for illuminating expression profiles of genes with different abundance in zebrafish. Commun Biol. 2023 Dec 21;6(1):1300. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05686-1. PMID: 38129658
8. Zhang Y, Anaya-Sanchez A, Portnoy DA*. para-Aminobenzoic Acid Biosynthesis Is Required for Listeria monocytogenes Growth and Pathogenesis. Infect Immun. 2022 Nov 17;90(11):e0020722. doi: 10.1128/iai.00207-22. Epub 2022 Nov 1. PMID: 36317877
9. Zhang Y, Han J*. Rethinking sepsis after a two-year battle with COVID-19. Cell Mol Immunol. 2022 Nov;19(11):1317-1318. doi: 10.1038/s41423-022-00909-7. Epub 2022 Sep 1. PMID: 36050479
10. Li L, Huang K, Ruan C, Han J*, Zhang Y*. Immunostaining of phospho-RIPK3 in L929 cells, murine yolk sacs, ceca, and small intestines. STAR Protoc. 2022 Sep 16;3(3):101517. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2022.101517. Epub 2022 Jul 1. PMID: 35779260
11. Zhang Y#, Huang K#, Zhang Y, Han T, Li L, Ruan C, Sun YH, Shi W, Han W, Wu SQ, Song J, Liu J, Han J*. A unique death pathway keeps RIPK1 D325A mutant mice in check at embryonic day 10.5. PLoS Biol. 2021 Aug 26;19(8):e3001304. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001304. eCollection 2021 Aug. PMID: 34437534
12. Lu J#, Shi W#, Liang B#, Chen C, Wu R, Lin H, Zhang Y, Han J*. Efficient engulfment of necroptotic and pyroptotic cells by nonprofessional and professional phagocytes. Cell Discov. 2019 Aug 6;5:39. doi: 10.1038/s41421-019-0108-8. eCollection 2019. PMID: 31632688
13. Qiu X, Zhang Y, Han J*. RIP3 is an upregulator of aerobic metabolism and the enhanced respiration by necrosomal RIP3 feeds back on necrosome to promote necroptosis. Cell Death Differ. 2018 May;25(5):821-824. doi: 10.1038/s41418-018-0075-x. Epub 2018 Mar 9. PMID: 29523873
14. Yang Z, Wang Y, Zhang Y, He X, Zhong CQ, Ni H, Chen X, Liang Y, Wu J, Zhao S, Zhou D, Han J*. RIP3 targets pyruvate dehydrogenase complex to increase aerobic respiration in TNF-induced necroptosis. Nat Cell Biol. 2018 Feb;20(2):186-197. doi: 10.1038/s41556-017-0022-y. Epub 2018 Jan 22. PMID: 29358703
15. Zhang Y, Chen X, Gueydan C, Han J*. Plasma membrane changes during programmed cell deaths. Cell Res. 2018 Jan;28(1):9-21. doi: 10.1038/cr.2017.133. Epub 2017 Oct 27. PMID: 29076500
16. Ren J, Jia X, Zhao Y, Shi W, Lu J, Zhang Y, Wu J, Liang B, Wu R, Fu G, Han J*. The RIP3-RIP1-NF-κB signaling axis is dispensable for necroptotic cells to elicit cross-priming of CD8+ T cells. Cell Mol Immunol. 2017 Jul;14(7):639-642. doi: 10.1038/cmi.2017.31. Epub 2017 Jun 19. PMID: 28626232
17. Huang D#, Zheng X#, Wang ZA#, Chen X, He WT, Zhang Y, Xu JG, Zhao H, Shi W, Wang X, Zhu Y, Han J*. The MLKL Channel in Necroptosis Is an Octamer Formed by Tetramers in a Dyadic Process. Mol Cell Biol. 2017 Feb 15;37(5):e00497-16. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00497-16. Print 2017 Mar 1. PMID: 27920255
18. Zhang Y#, Su SS#, Zhao S, Yang Z, Zhong CQ, Chen X, Cai Q, Yang ZH, Huang D, Wu R, Han J*. RIP1 autophosphorylation is promoted by mitochondrial ROS and is essential for RIP3 recruitment into necrosome. Nat Commun. 2017 Feb 8;8:14329. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14329. PMID: 28176780
19. Zhang Y, Han J*. Electrophysiologist shows a cation channel function of MLKL. Cell Res. 2016 Jun;26(6):643-4. doi: 10.1038/cr.2016.64. Epub 2016 May 27. PMID: 27229313
20. Li Y#, Zhong CQ#, Xu X, Cai S, Wu X, Zhang Y, Chen J, Shi J, Lin S, Han J*. Group-DIA: analyzing multiple data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry data files. Nat Methods. 2015 Dec;12(12):1105-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3593. PMID: 26436481
21. Wu T, Li Y, Huang D, Han F, Zhang YY, Zhang DW, Han J*. Regulator of G-protein signaling 19 (RGS19) and its partner Gα-inhibiting activity polypeptide 3 (GNAI3) are required for zVAD-induced autophagy and cell death in L929 cells. PLoS One. 2014 Apr 21;9(4):e94634. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094634. eCollection 2014. PMID: 24751948
22. Wu J#, Huang Z#, Ren J#, Zhang Z, He P, Li Y, Ma J, Chen W, Zhang Y, Zhou X, Yang Z, Wu SQ, Chen L, Han J*. Mlkl knockout mice demonstrate the indispensable role of Mlkl in necroptosis. Cell Res. 2013 Aug;23(8):994-1006. doi: 10.1038/cr.2013.91. Epub 2013 Jul 9. PMID: 23835476
23. Chen W#, Zhou Z#, Li L#, Zhong CQ, Zheng X, Wu X, Zhang Y, Ma H, Huang D, Li W, Xia Z, Han J*. Diverse sequence determinants control human and mouse receptor interacting protein 3 (RIP3) and mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL) interaction in necroptotic signaling. J Biol Chem. 2013 Jun 7;288(23):16247-16261. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.435545. Epub 2013 Apr 23. PMID: 23612963
24. Wu X#, Tian L#, Li J, Zhang Y, Han V, Li Y, Xu X, Li H, Chen X, Chen J, Jin W, Xie Y, Han J*, Zhong CQ*. Investigation of receptor interacting protein (RIP3)-dependent protein phosphorylation by quantitative phosphoproteomics. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2012 Dec;11(12):1640-51. doi: 10.1074/mcp.M112.019091. Epub 2012 Aug 30. PMID: 22942356
25. Wu XN#, Yang ZH#, Wang XK, Zhang Y, Wan H, Song Y, Chen X, Shao J, Han J*. Distinct roles of RIP1-RIP3 hetero- and RIP3-RIP3 homo-interaction in mediating necroptosis. Cell Death Differ. 2014 Jun 6. doi: 10.1038/cdd.2014.77. PMID: 24902902