Speaker

Professor Yuan Junying's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms regulating cell death in mammalian cells, with landmark contributions to both apoptosis and necrosis research. In the 1990s, she first discovered caspases as key conserved drivers of apoptosis and elucidated the Bcl-2–caspase relationship, followed by classic work on caspase-11's role in inflammation and caspase-8's role in mitochondrial damage. Her pioneering discovery that mammalian necrosis is controllable defined programmed necrosis and identified RIPK1 as its key mediator, overturning the traditional view of necrosis as passive and opening a new direction for RIPK1-targeted therapies now in clinical trials for inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Her work has earned her two invitations to give special lectures at the Nobel Forum. Her recent research explores how RIPK1 mediates apoptosis and inflammation during aging and neurodegeneration, and has identified a novel small molecule targeting cell death and cellular homeostasis with therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative disease.

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