Hui
Zheng

Dr. Hui Zheng is Professor and Director of the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor College of Medicine. She has over 30 years of track record in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research and has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Zheng is a pioneer in utilizing sophisticated mouse models to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of AD. Her early work provided critical insights into the biology and pathophysiology of the amyloid precursor protein and presenilins, mutations of which are causal for early-onset AD. More recently, her research has focused on the role of lysosomes and immune pathways in AD. In particular, she identified a potent role of TFEB, a master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis, in the clearance of tau and neurofibrillary tangles, and uncovered a lysosome-to-nucleus signaling pathway required for microglia activation. She also mapped out a complement C3-C3aR-mediated immune and metabolic pathway in AD. Additionally, her laboratory has revealed a prominent anti-inflammatory effect of epoxy lipids in AD mouse models, and she has teamed up with chemists to identify CNS-penetrant small molecule inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) as potential therapeutic candidates for AD.