Principal Investigator:  Dr. An Cheng 

Dr. An Cheng is an Associate Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, and "Pioneering Scholar" at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Medicine. After earning his Ph.D. from Tohoku University (Mentor: Kohji Fukunaga) in 2022 and a brief stint as an Assistant Professor there, he conducted postdoctoral research at UCSF (Mentor: Aparna Lakkaraju) from 2023 to 2025. Dr. Cheng's research focuses on understanding the core pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to develop innovative therapies. His notable contributions include elucidating the role of key protein families like FABPs in neuroinflammation and cell death relevant to diseases such as MSA and MS, leading to the development of the promising preclinical small molecule inhibitor MF6. His recent work explores the FOXO3 transcription factor's role in AMD and RPE cell homeostasis. Dr. Cheng has authored over 20 high-impact publications, with significant first or corresponding author papers in journals like Brain, eBioMedicine, and Acta Pharmacologica Sinica.