Chuantao Jiang, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Center for Proteomics and Systems Biology
Chuantao.Jiang@uth.tmc.edu713-500-2457
Chuantao Jiang was trained as a neurosurgeon after graduation from medical school. Motivated by a desire to become a neuroscientist, he started his research career in the Department of Neurobiology in Harbin Medical University as a MS student. For his PhD studies, Dr. Jiang investigated the application of stem cells on Parkinson's disease (PD) gene therapy where he established a neuronal progenitor cell line and an efficient stem cell proliferation procedure. Dr. Jiang received his Ph.D. from the Beijing Institute of Neuroscience in 2002.
Dr. Jiang did his postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine, and was supervised by Drs. Joseph Jankovic and Wei-dong Le. During this period, he published 3 peer review articles and was also a recipient of an American Heart Association travel award. Dr. Jiang joined the Institute of Molecular Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow in the Research Center for Protein Chemistry in 2004. In the past years, he has been investigating the possibilities of therapeutic application of non-native proteins on cancer and neurodegerative disorders, especially PD and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dr. Jiang was promoted to an Instructor in 2007 and Research Assistant Professor in 2009, in the Research Center for Protein Chemistry. In 2008, a grant entitled "Alpha-synuclein isomers as novel immunogens for immunotherapy of Parkinson disease", in which Dr.Jiang serves as a co-PI, was funded by Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF).
Dr. Jiang's research projects are focusing on: 1) To investigate the potential application of non-native Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) on tumor immunotherapy. Our preliminary studies showed one non-native VEGF might exhibit anti-tumor growth effect. 2) To investigate whether non-native alpha-synculeins have better therapeutic effect on PD than native counterparts. 3) To develop a procedure to amplify oligomeric alpha-synculeins in human blood samples for PD diagnosis confirmation and pre-symptomatic diagnosis.
Selected publications:
Jiang CT, Wan X, Jankovic J, Christian ST, Pristupa ZB, Niznik HB, Sundsmo JS, Le W. 2004. Dopaminergic properties and anti-parkinsonian effects of IPX-750 in rodent models of Parkinson's disease. Clin Neuropharmacol. 27: 63-73.
Jiang CT, Wan X, He Y, Pan T, Jankovic J, Le W. Aging-dependent dopamine dysfunction in Nurr1 Knock-out Mice. 2005. Exp Neurol. 191: 154-162.
Li Z, Szurek PF, Jiang CT, Pao A, Bundy B, Le WD, Bradley A, Yu YE. 2005. Neuronal differentiation of NTE-deficient embryonic stem cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 330: 1103-1109.
Jiang CT and Chang JY. 2005. Unfolding and breakdown of insulin in the presence of endogenous thiols. FEBS Lett. 579: 3927-3931.
Lu BY, Jiang CT, Chang JY. 2005. Isomers of epidermal growth factor with ser --> cys mutation at the N-terminal sequence: isomerization, stability, unfolding, refolding, and structure. Biochemistry. 44: 15032-15041.
Jiang CT and Chang JY. 2007, Isomers of Human α-Synuclein Stabilized by Disulfide Bonds Exhibit Distinct Structural and Aggregative Properties. Biochemistry. 46: 602-609.
