Principal Investigators
Dr. Wei Jia, Ph.D.
Professor of Nutrition
Co-Director of The Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components
Dr. Jia’s current research focuses on the identification and characterization of bioactive components from natural products and traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) concerning common multi-factorial, system-wide diseases such as metabolic disorders. He adopts the approach of metabolic and chemical profiling to systematically integrate relevant pharmaceutical and nutritional concepts and methodologies. He has taken a top-down research strategy to capture the dynamic variations of biological systems in response to environmental stimuli or drug intervention, elucidating the underlying mechanisms of pathophysiological development.
Dr. Jia was a Professor of Natural Medicines and the Vice Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). He also served as the Director of the Center for TCM and Systems Biology at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where research on the synergy between multi-component drug and food was particularly emphasized. Dr. Jia was also the Principal Investigator of Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine. This organization conducts innovative and cross-disciplinary research focusing on drug discovery and development from natural medicine and TCM. Dr. Jia received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia.
An -omics view of Puerh Tea
Zhanxiang Zhou, Ph.D
Dr. Zou is the Professor and Co-Director of the UNCG Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components. He researches trace elements and alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease; organ-organ interactions in the pathogenesis of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease; and bioactive phytochemicals in prevention and treatment of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease. He earned his doctorate at the University of Ehime, Japan, in 1990; a M.S. at Beijing Agricultural University, China in 1984; and a B.S. at Hebei Agricultural University, China, 1981.
Zhong W, McClain CJ, Cave M, Kang YJ, Zhou Z. The role of zinc deficiency in alcohol-induced intestinal barrier dysfunction. Am J Physiol. 2010; G625-633.
Dr. Guoxiang Xie, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Xie’s current research focuses on conducting comprehensive metabolomic studies to identify and characterize the bioactive components of natural products and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and to study the metabolic variations of biological systems in response to nutritional or drug interventions.
Dr. Xie was previously a research assistant fellow at Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine (SCSB), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). During his work at SCSB, he devoted himself to the management of liquid chromatography/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and the development of ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry-based metabolomic technologies, data acquisition and interpretation. He received his Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.
Dr. Yunping Qiu, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Qiu’s current research focuses on metabolomic studies of colorectal cancer and preventive interventions such as bioactive components from natural products and traditional Chinese medicine.
Dr. Qiu received his Ph.D. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. During his work at SJTU, he devoted himself to chromatography-mass spectrum-based metabolomics studies with sample treatment, data analysis, metabolites identification and biological interpretation. He and his colleagues developed analytical protocols for urine, serum and tissue metabolite extraction, derivatization, and GC-TOF-MS / UPLC-QTOF-MS based metabolic profiling analysis. This work includes the development and successful application of a new pretreatment process for biological samples, ethyl chloroformate derivatization, in GC-MS metabolomics research. Dr. Qiu has extensive experience in the metabolomic study of metabolic conditions including colorectal cancer, liver cancer and diabetes.
Dr. Xiuhua Sun, PhD
Senior Research Associate,
The Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components
Dr. Xiuhua Sun's research interest is fatty liver disease induced by alcohol consumption. Her recent research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the interaction between liver and adipose tissue in the progression of alcoholic fatty liver disease and the effect of metabolic drugs to prevent the development of liver disease. Dr. Sun obtained her PhD degree in Veterinary Medical Sciences from the University of Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan. She earned a bachelor's degree in Biology at Capital Normal University, and a master's degree in Veterinary Histology and Embryology at Beijing Agricultural University in Beijing, China.
Dr. Xiaobing Tan (MD, PhD)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Tan joined the UNCG Center for Research Excellence in Bioactive Food Components in late 2010. He received his M.D. degree from Shandong Medical University, China and his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Science from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 2007. His research focuses on alcohol- induced liver diseases and potential nutrition-based prevention/therapy. He currently investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying the alcohol effects on hepatic lipid homeostasis and identifies possible external nutrition supplements to reverse the pathologic progress induced by alcohol in liver.
Dr. Qiong Li (MD, PhD)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Li's research interests are molecular and nutritional mechanisms of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver diseases. She is currently working on the role of dietary fat sources, saturated versus unsaturated fat, in generation of lipid aldehydes and formation of aldehyde-protein adducts in the liver. Her research aims at understanding if inactivation of proteins by lipid aldehydes is an important mechanism of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver diseases, and the protective effects of bioactive nutritional factors such as phytochemicals on lipid aldehyde hepatotoxicity. Dr. Li received her M.D. and Ph.D degrees from Peking University, China.
Dr. Wei Zhong (DVM, PhD)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Zhong's research interests are organ-organ interactions at the gut-liver-adipose tissue axis in the pathogenesis of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease. She focuses her research on the roles of nutritional elements and gut microbiota in alcohol metabolism and whole body energy homeostasis. Outcomes of these studies are important to understand the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver disease. Dr. Zhong received her Ph.D. degree in Veterinary Biomedicine from China Agricultural University, China. She earned her B.A. degree in Veterinary Medicine from Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, China.