Meet the Fan Lab

Current Members

Dr. Xiaohong Wang, Research Scientist wang2xn@ucmail.uc.edu

Publication Record

Research Scientist, graduated from Qinghai Medical College. She has been in Dr. Fan’s laboratory since 2007 and published 34 peer-reviewed papers.  Dr. Xiaohong Wang has extensive expertise in animal models, animal surgery of cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) and cardiac ischemia/reperfusion, in vivo and ex vivo myocardial function measurement, isolation of cardiac endothelial cells, fibroblasts, myocytes, and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) for cell culture. Specifically, Dr. Wang has investigated the role of miRNAs and exosomes in I/R-induced cardiac injury and diabetic cardiomyopathy, which resulted in 12 first-authored or co-authored papers. Currently, she is a lab manager and involved in multiple research projects and animal surgery.

Dr. Rubab Akbar, Post-doc Fellow (akbarrb@ucmail.uc.edu)

Dr. Akbar received her master’s degree from National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Pakistan, and PhD degree from Zhejiang University, China. Subsequently, Rubab joined Dr. Fan’s lab in July 2022. She is currently investigating the effects of probiotic bacteria-released extracellular vesicles (BEVs) on macrophage efferocytosis in cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury and repair. Her project will apply expertise including Western-blotting, q-PCR, Immunofluorescence staining, genotyping, and primary cell culture etc. In addition, she will be working on advanced techniques including Flow Cytometry analysis, cardiac Ischemia/reperfusion modeling, and bioinformatic analysis of gene-network pathways. 

Dr. Hui-Hui Yang, Post-doc Fellow (yang2h6@ucmail.uc.edu)

Dr. Yang received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Central South University Xiangya Medical School. Subsequently, she joined the Zhang lab at the Central South University as post-doc fellow and conducted a project about glucose metabolism in LPS-tolerant macrophages during sepsis-induced immunosuppression. During her study at the Central South University, she had published 22 scientific papers, including 6 as the first (co-first) or corresponding (co-corresponding) author, and completed 6 research projects as PI. In 2022, Dr. Yang moved to USA and joined the Fan lab working on several projects about macrophage efferocytosis/phagocytosis, vascular leakage, and organ dysfunction during sepsis and septic shock. Dr. Yang has strong background in Molecular Cellular Biology and Immunology and has extensive experience in the study of inflammation-triggered organ injury, using in vitro cell culture and in vivo animal models.

Dr. Ruiyao Zhu, PhD Student (zhuro@ucmail.uc.edu)

Ruiyao was a physician working in the Intensive Care Unit at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. She is an intelligent and motivated individual with very good work ethic and creativity. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wuhan University. In the Fall of 2021, Ms. Zhu entered PhD program of Clinical Medicine.  In March 2023, she joined Fan lab for her PhD thesis project to develop natural nano-drug and test the effects of probiotic bacterial EVs in the clearance of pathogen during sepsis and its underlying mechanism, using in vitro cell culture, in vivo septic mouse models, RNA-seq and bioinformatics analysis.  

Dr. Li Cai, PhD Student (cail2@ucmail.uc.edu)

Dr. Cai was a Physician working in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. She received her bachelor’s degree from Xinxiang Medical College, majored in Clinical Medicine. Subsequently, Ms. Cai got her master’s degree from Chongqing Medical University, majored in Emergency Medicine. Now she is a Ph.D. student in the program of Critical Care Medicine. In March 2023, she joined Fan lab for her PhD thesis project to investigate the role of lipocalin 10 (Lcn10) in macrophage phagocytosis during sepsis, using transgenic and knockout mouse models under septic conditions.