Rate My Professor Xia Hongguang

Professor Xia Hongguang is a Qiushi Distinguished Professor, tenured professor, and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine at Zhejiang University. He holds key administrative roles including Deputy Director and Party Branch Secretary of the Liangzhu Laboratory, and Vice Director of the Molecular Medicine Center. Xia earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. He served as an assistant researcher there from 2011 to 2012, followed by postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School from 2012 to 2015. In 2015, he returned to China full-time, joining Zhejiang University School of Medicine as a professor and principal investigator.

His research employs chemical biology to elucidate molecular mechanisms of cellular autophagy, cell death, and neuroinflammation, while probing pathogenesis in neurodegenerative diseases, tumors, and aging to develop targeted drugs. Key innovations include Spautin-1, a commercialized autophagy inhibitor used globally in research, and a fourth-generation EGFR inhibitor advanced to IND stage. His team identified UMI-77, a mitophagy inducer that improves Alzheimer's pathology in mouse models by targeting MCL-1. Xia has authored over 20 SCI papers in top journals, including "Beclin1 Controls the Levels of p53 by Regulating the Deubiquitination Activity of USP10 and USP13" (Cell, 2011), "Degradation of HK2 by Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy Promotes Metabolic Catastrophe and Cell Death" (Journal of Cell Biology, 2015), "Pharmacological Targeting of MCL-1 Promotes Mitophagy and Ameliorates Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease" (Nature Communications, 2020), and recent works on mitophagy in lupus nephritis and Hsc70 in anti-tumor immunity. Recognized as a Zhejiang University Hundred Talents Plan researcher, National Youth Fund recipient, and chief scientist for national key R&D disruptive technology projects, his contributions have garnered thousands of citations, advancing autophagy and disease therapy fields.