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Biography

Dr. Zhang Yongliang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of òòò½Íø(NUS). He currently chairs the NUS Medicine Immunology Translational Research Programme (ITRP) and, as of July 2025, serves as the Director of the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) Immunology Programme.

Dr. Zhang obtained his BSc in Biology from Zhejiang Normal University in 1992, his MS in Microbiology from Wuhan University in 1995, and his PhD in Molecular Microbiology from NUS in 2002. He completed postdoctoral research at the University of Washington and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he also served as an instructor. In 2009, he joined NUS as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2017.

Research Focus

Dr. Zhang’s research investigates cellular signaling pathways that regulate innate and adaptive immune responses. His work emphasizes how dysregulated signaling contributes to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, and cancer. He has extensively demonstrated the critical role of MAPK phosphatases (MKPs/DUSPs) in immune regulation. Leveraging expertise in phosphorylation/dephosphorylation as a fundamental switch in cell signaling, his group aims to translate these findings into novel therapeutic strategies for immune-related diseases.

Key areas of interest:

• Dual-Specificity Phosphatases (DUSPs/MKPs): Their physiological and pathophysiological roles in immunity, microbial infection, obesity-related metabolic diseases, and cancer.
• Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 (IRF3): Regulatory functions in immunity and tumor biology.
• Signal Transduction: Elucidating the mechanisms of signaling cascades to develop DUSP-based therapies.

PUBLICATIONS