Introduction

Dr. Ping Zhou. Principal Investigator at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC). Dr. Zhou completed his B.S. degree in biotechnology and earned his Ph.D. in animal genetics, breeding, and reproduction at Huazhong Agricultural University. He accomplished his postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS) in Beijing, Dr. Zhou started work as Principal Investigator in 2020. During his postdoctoral research in Dr. Feng Shao’s lab at NIBS, he discovered that the protein kinase ALPK1 is a novel innate immune receptor that initiates host inflammatory response by recognizing bacterial metabolite ADP-heptose during infection. His prospective research directions will mainly address innate immune recognition of small molecule metabolites and neoantigen-based tumor immunotherapy. His broad and long-term objectives include the exploration of novel innate immune sensing mechanisms and the investigation of their role in the pathogenesis and treatment of autoinflammatory diseases and tumors. An ongoing project involves the study of the pathogenesis of the autoinflammatory disease ROSAH syndrome mediated by ALPK1 mutation to hopefully offer valuable directions for the rational treatment of the disease.