Academic Profile : Faculty
Asst Prof Franklin Zhong
Nanyang Assistant Professor (NRF), Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
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Nanyang Assistant Professor Franklin Zhong was awarded the Nanyang Assistant Professor and joined the faculty at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in 2018. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore in the area of innate immunity and pathogen sensing. Asst Prof Zhong holds a PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Asst Prof Zhong’s research focuses on the inner workings of the human innate immune system in barrier tissues, such as the skin, that protects body’s internal organs from microbial infection. His latest work has led to the identification of new immune sensing pathways that regulate inflammation and cancer immune-surveillance, which could serve therapeutic targets in the treatment of infectious and auto-immune diseases.
Asst Prof Zhong’s research focuses on the inner workings of the human innate immune system in barrier tissues, such as the skin, that protects body’s internal organs from microbial infection. His latest work has led to the identification of new immune sensing pathways that regulate inflammation and cancer immune-surveillance, which could serve therapeutic targets in the treatment of infectious and auto-immune diseases.
The innate immune system provides the first line of defence in our body against microbial infections and incipient malignancies. Asst Prof Zhong’s lab aims to dissect the fundamental biology of the human innate immune system by the addressing the following questions:
1. How does the human innate immune system recognise diverse pathogens that evolve rapidly to evade the immune system?
2. How does the immune system differentiate dangerous pathogens from beneficial symbiotic microbes?
3. How are early cancer cells recognised and destroyed by the immune system and how/why this no longer occurs during later stages of malignancy?
4. How does dysregulated innate immune response contribute to auto-immune diseases?
1. How does the human innate immune system recognise diverse pathogens that evolve rapidly to evade the immune system?
2. How does the immune system differentiate dangerous pathogens from beneficial symbiotic microbes?
3. How are early cancer cells recognised and destroyed by the immune system and how/why this no longer occurs during later stages of malignancy?
4. How does dysregulated innate immune response contribute to auto-immune diseases?
- Targeting innate immune sensors to develop novel immune-modulatory therapeutics
- Determining the molecular basis of Noddosome activation in human
- Characterizing the role of the 'ribotoxic stress-inflammasome' (RSR-I) pathway in skin antibacterial immunity
- Human NLRP1 as a nuclear dsRNA sensor
- Identification and characterization of novel cellular factors that license the human NLRP1 inflammasome to sense dsRNA
- Construct kidney organoids with higher-order tissue architecture for studying congenital kidney diseases
- The eMEASURE-RNA Initiative: Exploring the Molecular Basis of RNA Editing, Sensing and Immune Response – New Approaches for Immuno- Oncology Therapy (NTU PI: Luo Dahai)