Liang-Jun Yan

Liang-Jun Yan is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UNT System College of Pharmacy and a member of the Institute for Healthy Aging. His research focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms of oxidative stress in aging-related metabolic disorders, particularly kidney diseases including diabetic kidney disease and acute kidney injury. He holds a BS from Peking University, MS from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Key research areas include mitochondrial oxidative stress responses, redox dysregulation in kidney pathologies, and developing novel therapeutic targets. Active projects span from NAD kinase knockout mouse models to investigating mitochondrial complex I superoxide production. He has led 13 sponsored projects and published over 116 peer-reviewed articles since 1991, with a current H-index of 46 and 9,882 citations.

His recent work highlights interventions like butyrate, β-lapachone, and lipoic acid for kidney protection, while exploring mechanisms involving DLDH enzymes, NAD+/NADH imbalance, and gut microbiota-derived metabolites. Collaborations focus on translational research linking basic mitochondrial biology to clinical kidney disease management.