Research Areas

Explore pathogen infection induced programmed cell death, including apoptosis, pyroptosis and necroptosis; Investigate pathogen infection induced inflammasome activation; Study the danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released during respiratory virus infection.

Highlights

Dr. Zheng has been focusing on the pathogen infection and innate immune responses. So far, he has published 18 papers, including first author or co-first author papers published in Cell (2020), Nature Immunology (2021), Immunological Reviews (2020), mBio (2019). Besides, he published 4 papers as a co-author in Cell, Lancet, and Nature Communication. All his papers have more than 3300 citations. In addition, he got two US patents.

- Dr. Zheng found that caspase-6 is involved in influenza virus induced programmed cell death and inflammasome activation. In addition, it is critical for host defense against influenza virus infection. 

- Recently, Dr. Zheng has identified that the Envelope protein of SARS-CoV-2 is a critical inflammation inducer, which can be sensed by TLR2 and trigger strong inflammatory responses.

Honors

• 2011   Hong Kong PhD Fellowship

Related News

Dr. Zheng's Work on Caspase-6（Cell ）

1. St Jude Children’s Research Hospital: https://www.stjude.org/media-resources/news-releases/2020-medicine-science-news/discovering-the-secrets-of-the-enigmatic-caspase-6.html

2. News wise: https://www.newswise.com/articles/discovering-the-secrets-of-the-enigmatic-caspase-6

3. 生物谷: https://news.bioon.com/article/6754081.html

Selected Publications

1. Zheng M., Karki R., Williams E. P., Yang D., Fitzpatrick E., Vogel P., Jonsson C. B., & Kanneganti T.D., TLR2 senses the SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein to produce inflammatory cytokines. Nature Immunology. 2021 May 07.

2. Zheng M., Karki R., Vogel P., & Kanneganti T.D., Caspase-6 is a key regulator of innate immunity, inflammasome activation, and host defense. Cell. 2020 Apr 30;181(3):674-687.

3. Zheng M., Williams E.P., Malireddi R.K.S., Karki R., et al., (2020). Impaired NLRP3 inflammasome activation/pyroptosis leads to robust inflammatory cell death via caspase-8/RIPK3 during coronavirus infection. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2020 Oct 9;295(41):14040-14052.

4. Zheng M. & Kanneganti T.D., The regulation of the ZBP1-NLRP3 inflammasome and its implications in pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis (PANoptosis). Immunological Reviews. 2020 Sep;297(1):26-38.

5. Wang P.*, Zheng M.*, Lau S.Y., Chen P., Mok, B.W., Liu S., et al., Generation of DelNS1 influenza viruses: a strategy for optimizing live attenuated influenza vaccines. mBio. (co-first author). 2019 Sep 17;10(5):e02180-19.