Xueling Ma

My name is Xueling Ma. I got my MD degree in clinical medicine(2016), MS in Pediatrics(2019), PhD in Neonatology(2022) in Chongqing Medical University, China. During my Ph.D. study, I established an inflammation-induced premature brain injury model in rats and analyzed the connectivity between different brain regions based on multimodal MRI. Based on that model, I further explored the mechanisms of delayed myelination in preterm infants, and my results highlighted the role of inflammation in immature brains. After completing my PhD study, I joined Dr. Zhigao Wang’s lab as a postdoc. Through a CRISPR whole genome knockout screen, our lab has discovered that PPP1R3G, a regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1), is required for RIPK1-dependent apoptosis and necroptosis. With the guidance of Dr.Wang, my current research focuses on defining the in vivo function of PPP1R3G in mouse models of ischemia-induced cardiac injury and developing peptidomimetic inhibitors of PPP1R3G/PP1γ to inhibit RIPK1 activation in vitro and in vivo.