Rate My Professor Heng Du

Heng Du, MD, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy. He rejoined the department in September 2020 as Associate Professor after serving as Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously, from 2011 to 2013, he was Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology and the Higuchi Bioscience Research Center at the University of Kansas. In 2024, he was promoted to full Professor. His research centers on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease aimed at developing novel therapeutics. Core interests encompass synaptic mitochondrial alterations that drive synaptic degeneration, mtDNA leakage and STING-dependent microglial innate immune responses, ghrelin o-acyltransferase (GOAT) dysfunction contributing to hippocampal damage and systemic dysmetabolism, liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 elevation in age-associated cognitive decline, and vulnerabilities in mitochondrial OXPHOS complexes in key brain regions.

Professor Du has obtained significant funding through NIH R01 grants, including “mtDNA Leakage and Sting-Dependent Microglial Innate Immune Response in Alzheimer's Disease” (2022–2026, $2,374,430) and a recent R01 ($2.93 million) on GOAT dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. His influential publications include “Vulnerability of mitochondrial OXPHOS complexes in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus of Alzheimer's disease” (J Alzheimers Dis, 2025), “Hippocampal transcriptome-wide association study and pathway analysis of mitochondrial solute carriers in Alzheimer's disease” (Transl Psychiatry, 2024), “Elevated Ghrelin Promotes Hippocampal Ghrelin Receptor Defects in Humanized Amyloid-β Knockin Mice During Aging” (J Alzheimers Dis, 2023), “Mitochondria-sequestered Aβ renders synaptic mitochondria vulnerable in the elderly with a risk of Alzheimer disease” (JCI Insight, 2023), “Liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 elevation contributes to age-associated cognitive decline” (JCI Insight, 2023), and “Ghrelin system in Alzheimer's disease” (Curr Opin Neurobiol, 2023). These contributions advance comprehension of mitochondrial, metabolic, and immune pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions.