Meet the Fan Lab

Current Members

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

Dr. Xiaohong Wang 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 dozens of first-authored or co-authored papers. Her publication can be found in the PubMed. Currently, she is a lab manager and involved in multiple research projects and animal surgery.

Dr. Debabrata Chowdhury, Research Scientist
Email: chowdhda@ucmail.uc.edu

Dr. Chowdhury received his M.S. degree from Vidyasagar University, and Ph.D. degree from the CSIR-IICT, India. Subsequently, he completed his first post-doc training in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and second post-doc training in Stanford University. In August 2023, Dr. Chowdhury joined the Fan lab working on several projects about macrophage efferocytosis during cardiac ischemia/reperfusion, and vascular leakage during septic shock. Dr. Chowdhury has strong background in Immunology and has extensive experience in the study of cardiac remodeling, using in vitro cell culture and in vivo animal models.

Dr. Rubab Akbar, Post-doc Fellow
Email: 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. Jade Yu Zhang, Post-doc fellow
Email: zhang8yu@ucmail.uc.edu

Dr. Zhang received her medical degree of Clinical Medicine from Yanbian University, and M.S. degree from Zunyi Medical University. She has been working in the field of cardiovascular research since 2019 and has extensive experience on studying revascularization after cardiac infarction. She is an exceptional scholar who exhibits a deep passion for her project.  In May 2023, she joined the Fan lab and is investigating the roles of LCN10 and CPNE5 in macrophage efferocytosis during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion and inflammation-triggered vascular permeability, using the in vitro cell model and in vivo transgenic/knockout mouse models.

Dr. Ruiyao Zhu, PhD Student
Email: 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 
Email: 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.