Education

1992 Nanjing University School of Medicine – B.S. – Medicine
1994 Nanjing University School of Medicine – M.D. – Clinical Medicine
2004 Southern Illinois University – Ph.D. – Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Research

 The rupture of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques and the resulting thrombosis are the direct causes of heart attack and stroke, the No. 1 and No. 3 killers in the United States and many other developed countries. Atherosclerosis is both a lipid deposit disease and a chronic inflammatory condition. Macrophages are the primary cholesterol sinks as well as dominant inflammation machines in atherogenesis. Macrophage foam cell formation and inflammatory responses form a vicious cycle and promote atherogenesis. The goal of the research in our laboratory is to develop strategies to disrupt the vicious cycle and promote the regression of atherosclerotic plaques through restoring macrophage cholesterol homeostasis and controlling macrophage inflammation.

Myeloid cells are the major cell component of the tumor microenvironment (TME), whose interaction with malignant cells determines the aggressiveness of the tumor. Myeloid cells in TME are mainly myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). In advanced tumors, due to the unique features in TME including hypoxia, abundance in cytokines/chemokines and Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands, and an unusual metabolic profile, a complex signaling network tunes the dynamics and function of the myeloid cells in favor of cancer progression. Our research is focused on understanding this signal network and developing strategies to manipulate it to improve cancer treatment.

Microglia are resident macrophages in the brain; they are pivotal to brain health and disease. We recently launched new projects to define the role of microglia in the pathophysiology of mixed Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia (MD) and to develop new preventive and therapeutic strategies. To this end, we are building novel mouse models of MD and applying cutting-edge technologies such as high-parameter flow cytometry, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial transcriptomics to elucidate how microglia–cerebral microvascular endothelial cell interactions orchestrate the crosstalk between Alzheimer’s and vascular pathologies.

Recent Publications

Mutaz Sarhan, Christian Wohlfeld, Ariel Perry-Mills, Jeffrey Meyers, James Fadel, E. Angela Murphy, Leonardo Bonilha, and Daping Fan. (2025) The pathophysiology of mixed Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.Theranostics 2025; doi:10.7150/thno.117788; accepted

Liu HJ, Wang M, Wang Y, Shi S, Hu X, Zhang DB, Fan D, Mintzer J, Xu P. (2025) Ceria-nanocluster based therapy for Alzheimer's disease through the modulation of activated microglia and attenuation of amyloid-β deposition. Cell Biomater. 2025 Aug 6:100158. doi: 10.1016/j.celbio.2025.100158. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40857535

Older EA, Zhang J, Ferris ZE, Xue D, Zhong Z, Mitchell MK, Madden M, Wang Y, Chen H, Nagarkatti P, Nagarkatti M, Fan D, Ellermann M, Li YX, Li J. (2024) Biosynthetic enzyme analysis identifies a protective role for TLR4-acting gut microbial sulfonolipids in inflammatory bowel disease. Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 30;15(1):9371. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53670-y. PMID: 39477928

Wang J, Wang Q, Guan Y, Sun Y, Wang X, Lively K, Wang Y, Luo M, Kim JA, Murphy EA, Yao Y, Cai G, Fan D. (2022)Breast cancer cell-derived microRNA-155 suppresses tumor progression via enhancing immune cell recruitment and anti-tumor function. J Clin Invest. 2022;132(19):e157248. PMID: 35925680

Saaoud F, Wang J, Iwanowycz S, Wang Y, Altomare D, Shao Y, Liu J, Blackshear PJ, Lessner SM, Murphy EA, Wang H, Yang X, Fan D.  (2020) Bone marrow deficiency of mRNA decaying protein Tristetraprolin increases inflammation and mitochondrial ROS but reduces hepatic lipoprotein production in LDLR knockout mice. Redox Biol. 2020 Jun 17;:101609. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2020.101609. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32591281

Li Y, Sun W, Saaoud F, Wang Y, Wang Q, Hodge J, Hui Y, Yin S, Lessner SM, Kong X, Fan D. (2020) MiR155 modulates vascular calcification by regulating Akt-FOXO3a signaling and apoptosis in vascular smooth muscle cells. J Cell Mol Med. 2020 Nov 18. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.16107. PMID: 33210462

Qing Liu, Johnie Hodge, Junfeng Wang, Yuzhen Wang, Lianming Wang, Udai Singh, Yong Li, Yongzhong Yao, Dawei Wang, Walden Ai, Prakash Nagarkatti, Hexin Chen, Peisheng Xu, E. Angela Murphy and Daping Fan. (2020) Emodin reduces Breast Cancer Lung Metastasis by suppressing Macrophage-induced Breast Cancer Cell Epithelial-mesenchymal transition and Cancer Stem Cell formation. Theranostics 2020, 10(18). 8365-8381. PMID: 32724475

Li Y, Hodge J, Liu Q, Wang J, Wang Y, Evans TD, Altomare D, Yao Y, Murphy EA, Razani B, Fan D. (2020) TFEB is a master regulator of tumor-associated macrophages in breast cancer.  J Immunother Cancer. 2020 Jun;8(1):e000543. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2020-000543. PMID: 32487570

Johnie Hodge, Fang Wang, Junfeng Wang, Qing Liu, Fatma Saaoud, Yuzhen Wang, Udai P. Singh, Hexin Chen, Ming Luo, Walden Ai, and Daping Fan. (2020) Overexpression of microRNA-155 enhances the efficacy of dendritic cell vaccine against breast cancer. Oncoimmunology. 2020 Feb 9;9(1):1724761. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2020.1724761. eCollection 2020. PMID: 32117588

Xiangyu Zhang, Ismail Sergin, Trent D. Evans, Se-Jin Jeong, Astrid Rodriguez-Velez, Divya Kapoor, Sunny Chen, Eric Song, Karyn B. Holloway, Jan R. Crowley, Slava Epelman, Conrad C. Weihl, Abhinav Diwan, Daping Fan, Bettina Mittendorfer, Nathan O. Stitziel, Joel D. Schilling, Irfan J. Lodhi, and Babak Razani. (2020) High protein diets increase cardiovascular risk by activating macrophage mTOR to suppress mitophagy. Nature Metabolism. Nat Metab. 2020 Jan;2(1):110-125. doi: 10.1038/s42255-019-0162-4. Epub 2020 Jan 23. PMID: 32128508

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