Prof Ping Yuan | Medicine and Health Sciences | Research Excellence Award

Prof Ping Yuan | Medicine and Health Sciences | Research Excellence Award | Principle Investigator | The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University | China 

Prof. Ping Yuan is a distinguished researcher and professor currently serving as Principal Investigator at the Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (since January 2017), with prior appointments including Assistant Professor at the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2010–2016); Postdoctoral Fellow (Stem Cell) at the Genome Institute of Singapore (2006–2010); Research Associate in Molecular Biology at Princeton University (2004–2006); and Visiting Research Fellow in Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston (2001). He earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, National University of Singapore (completed 2004), after completing an M.S. in Microbiology at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a B.S. from the School of Biological Sciences, Central China Normal University. Over his career, Prof. Ping Yuan has secured multiple competitive research grants — including support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for work on YAP-associated super-enhancers in stem cells (Grant 31970674, 2020–2023), inhibition of glioblastoma stem cell proliferation (Grant 8177110391, 2018–2021), and the role of DNA repair factor Rif1 in teratocarcinoma formation (Grant 81372162, 2014–2017), as well as funding from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for building an in-vitro system to reconstitute female germ-lineage cells (Grant 479512, 2013–2016). His research interests center on cancer stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, epigenetic modification, and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), with research skills spanning molecular biology, stem cell biology, epigenetics, in vitro and in vivo functional assays, bioinformatics and genomics. Prof. Ping Yuan has contributed significantly to our understanding of how pathways such as Hippo-YAP regulate stem cell differentiation and how dysregulation may underlie cancer, particularly colorectal and other cancers. His recent work includes demonstration that interference with CAPG induces apoptosis and ferroptosis via the p53 pathway in colorectal cancer cells, and that UCKL1 plays a non-canonical role in ferroptosis defense in colorectal cancer, highlighting potential therapeutic targets. Through his sustained funding, leadership roles, and prolific output, Prof. Ping Yuan has established himself as a leading figure in the intersection of stem cell biology, epigenetics, and cancer research, influencing both basic stem cell science and translational oncology.

Profile:  scopus | ORCID 

Featured Publications

1. CAPG interference induces apoptosis and ferroptosis in colorectal cancer cells through the P53 pathway. (2023). Molecular and Cellular Probes.

2. Non-canonical role of UCKL1 on ferroptosis defence in colorectal cancer. (2023). EBioMedicine.

3. Silence of a dependence receptor CSF1R in colorectal cancer cells activates tumor-associated macrophages. (2022). Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

4. Lin28 inhibits the differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells to glial lineage cells through upregulation of Yap1. (2021). Stem Cells International.

5. Hippo-YAP signaling controls lineage differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells through modulating the formation of super-enhancers. (2020). Nucleic Acids Research, 48(13), 7182–7196.

6. CFTR constrains the differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells to intestine lineage cells. (2019). Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.

7. Differentiation of female Oct4-GFP embryonic stem cells into germ lineage cells. (2018). Cell Biology International