!!Yufang Shi - Biography
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Dr. Yufang Shi received his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Alberta. He has been a tenured professor with a University Professor title at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University since 2001. He was on the faculty of George Washington University and American Red Cross Holland Lab from 1995 to 2001. In 2008, Dr. Shi joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences as the Director of the Institute of Health Sciences and now the Director of Soochow University Institutes for Translational Medicine and Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. He is recently appointed as the Dean of Medical School of Kunming University of Science and Technology. \\
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Dr. Shi is one of the early scientists working on apoptosis. His findings on activation-induced cell death (AICD) in T cells, the role of c-myc in apoptosis, opioid- and stress-induce lymphocyte apoptosis, mTOR inhibitor and cancer therapy, and CD4+ T cells and asthma provided some fundamental concepts in immunology. His research now focuses on immune modulation and inflammatory tissue repair by mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs). Based on his concept of inflammation licensing stem cells, he demonstrated the influence of varied inflammatory conditions on immune modulation by MSCs and established the "cell empowerment" theory for stem cell-based therapy and the concept of the plasticity of MSCs in immunomodulation. Dr. Shi has more than 210 publications appearing in Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Cell Stem Cell, Cell Metabolism, Immunity, Nature Review Drug Discovery, Nature Reviews Nephrology and other journals with more than 30,200 citations and a h-index of 77. Dr. Shi is an Editor-in-Chief of Cell Death and Diseases, an Associate Editor of Oncogene, and a Receiving Editor of Cell Death & Differentiation. \\
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Dr. Shi is among the first to be inducted to the Chinese National “Innovative Talents” program and received a National Distinguished Expert title. Beside successfully building the Institute of Health Science at Chinese at Academy Sciences and Soochow University Institutes for Translational Medicine, he has also played an important role in advising science policy and new research initiatives at the national and international levels. He served on several key committees, such as a chair of the National 973 Program on Reproduction and Development. Dr. Shi has close collaborations with European scientists and served on various European communities.\\
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Since 2010 is Editor-in-Chief, Cell Death Disease (www.nature.com/cddis); which Editorial Office is based in Rome, Italy while the Publisher is in London (Springer Nature). With the journal Dr Shi has organized 12 international scientific meetings in Shanghai, in Capri, in Cambridge). Since 2015 he is a member of the PhD degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Since 2018 holds a China grant. Following decades of collaboration with Rome, in 2019 was appointed Distingushed Professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and acts as Secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre of Excellence "Torvergata Oncoscience Research" (TOR) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.\\ \\