1.Introduction to the academic department

Laboratory Animal Science is an interdisciplinary discipline that studies laboratory animals and animal experimentation. At Capital Medical University, the discipline takes the construction of animal models of major diseases as its foundation and the concept of “innovative technologies driving scientific advancement” as its guiding principle. We continuously strive to strengthen teaching, research, and discipline building, to cultivate high-quality talent, and to provide services to society. In 2006, the discipline was authorized to confer the Master’s degree in Zoology, and in 2008 it was designated a Key Construction Discipline of Beijing Municipality.

The discipline is supported by a dual platform composed of the Department of Laboratory Animal Science in the School of Basic Medical Sciences and the University Laboratory Animal Center, forming a distinctive feature of “clinical demand-driven development and equal emphasis on resources and models”.

In recent years, faculty members have led or participated in numerous national and provincial research programs, including National Key R&D Projects, National Major Projects, NSFC grants (Youth, General, and Key Programs), as well as projects funded by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission. Our research focuses on two main areas:1. Comparative-medicine studies of animal models of major human diseases. We concentrate on major, common and frequently-occurring diseases in China and worldwide. Our work centers on the establishment, evaluation, comparison, and standardization of disease animal models. Specific projects include the development of animal models for major brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and the associated key technologies, as well as the establishment and mechanistic investigation of liver-fibrosis animal models. 2. Gene-editing technologies for laboratory animals. We focus on lethal genes closely related to major human diseases and develop novel gene-editing technologies for their study.

2.Department Staff

The department currently has five faculty members: one full professors and four associate professors.

Name	Gender	Academic Title	Research Area
Baian Chen	Male	Professor Doctoral supervisor	Gene editing and basic research of Alzheimer's disease therapy
Quan Sun	Male	Associate Professor Master’s advisor	Key pathogenic factors and pathogenesis of liver diseases and application of the special laboratory animal (Mongolian Gerbil), in Human Disease Models
Yi Wu	Male	Associate Professor Master’s advisor	Gene-editing technologies for laboratory animals
Jing Zhang	Female	Associate Professor Master’s advisor	Animal model development and basic research of Alzheimer's disease
Jin Meng	Female	Associate Professor Master’s advisor	Mechanisms underlying aging and anti-aging interventions

3.Teaching Activities of the Department

The Department of Laboratory Animal Science remains firmly student-centered, actively engaging in university- and college-level teaching reforms, applying for educational-reform projects, and developing online courses to continually improve educational quality with notable success. At present, the department offers multi-tier courses related to laboratory animal science to undergraduates in the Clinical/Stomatology Jieping Program, Basic Medical Sciences, Medical Laboratory Technology, and other majors, as well as to master’s and doctoral students. These courses include:

• Medical Laboratory Animal Science (Jieping Program)

• Laboratory Animal Science

• Medical Laboratory Animal Science A

• Laboratory Animal Science Experiment A

• Laboratory Animal Model Science

• Transgenic Animal Technology

• Medical Laboratory Animal Science (elective)

Course design emphasizes both theory and practice. While imparting fundamental knowledge of laboratory animal science, equal attention is paid to cultivating students’ experimental skills, scientific thinking, research design, and data-analysis capabilities, thereby enhancing their overall ability to identify and solve problems.

In addition, our discipline has achieved outstanding results in fostering undergraduate and graduate research competence. Under faculty guidance, undergraduates have participated in the “Qiyan” Undergraduate Research Program and secured one 2024 Beijing Natural Science Foundation grant; teams have also won awards at the National Undergraduate Basic Medical Innovation Research and Experimental Design Forum. Graduate students mentored by our faculty have received National Scholarships (2021, 2024) and have presented posters at numerous academic conferences.

4.Research Activities of the Department

(I) Main Research Directions

The discipline has established three stable, sustainable research directions: Innovation in gene-editing technologies and their application to disease therapy; Precision modeling and whole-life-cycle studies of major diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using animal models; Development and utilization of the Mongolian gerbil—an experimental-animal resource distinctive to Capital Medical University.

(II) Funded Projects in Recent Years

Project Principal Investigator	Project Title	Grant Amount (in 10,000 RMB)	Funding Source	Ranking
Baian Chen	Research on the identification of stress and other abnormal states in experimental animals, as well as their ethical welfare	100	Ministry of Science and Technology	Sub-project PI
Baian Chen / Jing Lu	Development of a real-time fluorescent quantitative protein misfolding cyclic amplification instrument for Alzheimer's disease Aβ seeds	733	National Natural Science Foundation of China	First participant
Baian Chen / Jing Lu	Research on the establishment of animal models for severe brain diseases and key technologies	450	Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission	First participant
Baian Chen	The discovery and identification of a spontaneous Alzheimer's disease model in rhesus monkeys	110	National Natural Science Foundation of China	project PI
Baian Chen	Creation of a non-human primate model of Alzheimer's disease induced by tau protein	55	National Natural Science Foundation of China	project PI
Quan Sun	Research on the mechanism by which Caveolin-1 inhibits hepatic stellate cell activation through negative regulation of the PAR-2 signaling pathway	17	National Natural Science Foundation of China	project PI
Quan Sun	Research on the mechanism by which protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR-2) promotes liver fibrosis through crosstalk between the TGF-β1/Smad and ERK pathways	16	National Natural Science Foundation of China	project PI
Quan Sun	Research on the mechanism by which targeting caveolin-1 pathway regulates bone marrow-derived monocyte/macrophage to promote the regression of liver fibrosis	20	Beijing Natural Science Foundation	project PI
Jing Zhang	Establishment and evaluation of a rhesus monkey model of Alzheimer's disease induced by β-amyloid dimer	24	National Natural Science Foundation of China	project PI
Jing Zhang	Study on the impact of β-amyloid low-molecular-weight oligomers on Alzheimer's disease neuropathy	15	Beijing Municipal Education Commission	project PI

(III) Publications in Recent Years

1. Miaomiao Du*, Yujia Wang*, Xinyuan Wang*, Yifei Liu, Fuchuan Xiao, Jing Zhang, Xia Meng, Kunhe Ma, Na Wu#, Baian Chen#, Jing Lu#. Age-Related Complement C3 Drives Memory Impairments and Associated Neuropathologies in a Mouse Model. Aging Cell. 2025 Jun 20:e70145. doi: 10.1111/acel.70145.

2. Xiaoxu Wang*, Lu Dai*, Na Wu, Donghui Wu, Xinyuan Wang, Xia Meng, Qilei Zhang, Jing Lu, Xiaoxin Yan, Jing Zhang#, Baian Chen#. DEAD-Box Helicase 6 Blockade in Brain-Derived Aβ Oligomers From Alzheimer's Disease Patients Attenuates Neurotoxicity. MedComm (2020). 2025 Apr 24;6(5):e70156. doi: 10.1002/mco2.70156. eCollection 2025 May.

3. Lu Dai*, Xiaoxu Wang*, Meng Li*, Jiaying Li, Yifei Liu, Na Wu, Xia Meng, Jing Lu, Jing Zhang#, Baian Chen#. Ameliorative effect and underlying mechanism of the Xiaxue Kaiqiao formula on age-related dementia in Samp8 mice. Phytomedicine. 2024 Dec:135:155801. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2024.155801. Epub 2024 Jun 12.

4. Jing Zhang*, Na Wu, Shubo Wang, Zitong Yao, Fuchuan Xiao, Jing Lu, Baian Chen#. Neuronal loss and microgliosis are restricted to the core of Aβ deposits in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Aging Cell. 2021 Jun;20(6):e13380. doi: 10.1111/acel.13380. Epub 2021 May 25.

5. Yi Wu*, Jing Zhang*, Boya Peng, Dan Tian, Dong Zhang, Yang Li,Xiaoyu Feng, Jinghao Liu, Jun Li, Teng Zhang, Xiaoyong Liu, Jing Lu, Baian Chen#, Songlin Wang#. Generating viable mice with heritable embryonically lethal mutations using the CRISPR-Cas9 system in two-cell embryos. Nature Communications. 2019 Jun 28;10(1):2883. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10748-2.

6. Jing Zhang*, Baian Chen*, Jing Lu, Yi Wu, Shubo Wang, Zitong Yao, Liming Zhu, Yanhua Qiao, Quan Sun, Wei Qin, Qiao Zhao, Jianping Jia, Cuibai Wei#. Brains of rhesus monkeys display Aβ deposits and glial pathology while lacking A3 dimers and other Alzheimer's pathologies. Aging Cell. 2019 Aug;18(4):e12978. doi: 10.1111/acel.12978. Epub 2019 Jun 4.

7. Baian Chen*, Rodrigo Morales, Marcelo A Barria, Claudio Soto#. Estimating prion concentration in fluids and tissues by quantitative PMCA. Nature Methods, 2010, 7(7): 519-520.

8. Li R*, Shu Y, Yan Y, Zhu J, Cheng Z, Zhang J, Zhu L, Qiao Y, Sun Q#. Caveolin-1 Deficiency in Macrophages Alleviates Carbon Tetra-Chloride-Induced Acute Liver Injury in Mice, International journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025, 26(10), 4903. DOI: 10.3390/ijms26104903

9. Yang Z*, Zhang J, Wang Y, Lu J, Sun Q#. Caveolin-1 Deficiency Protects Mice Against Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Acute Liver Injury Through Regulating Polarization of Hepatic Macrophages. Frontiers in Immunology, 2021,12:713808.DOI:10.3389/fimmu.2021.713808

10. Lu J*, Zhang J, Wang Y, Sun Q#. Caveolin-1 Scaffolding Domain Peptides Alleviate Liver Fibrosis by Inhibiting TGF-β1/Smad Signaling in Mice. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018, 19(6):1729. DOI:10.3390/ijms19061729

11. Sun Q*, Wang Y, Zhang J, Lu J#. ENMD-1068 inhibits liver fibrosis through attenuation of TGF-β1/Smad2/3 signaling in mice. Scientific Reports, 2017, 7(1):5498. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05190-7

12. Lu J*, Chen B, Li S , Sun Q#. Tryptase inhibitor APC 366 prevents hepatic fibrosis by inhibiting collagen synthesis induced by tryptase/protease-activated receptor 2 interactions in hepatic stellate cells. International Immunopharmacology, 2014, 20(2): 352-357. DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2014.04.001

13. Takafumi Ogawa*; Meltem Isik*; Ziyun Wu*; Kiran Kurmi; Jin Meng; Sungyun Cho; Gina Lee; L. Paulette Fernandez-Cardenas; Masaki Mizunuma; John Blenis; Marcia C Haigis; T Keith Blackwell#. Nutrient control of growth and metabolism through mTORC1 regulation of mRNA splicing. Molecular Cell. 2025. (DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2024.10.037).

14. Cyril Statzer*; Jin Meng*; Richard Venz; Monet Bland; Stacey Robida-Stubbs; Krina Patel; Dunja Petrovic; Raffaella Emsley; Pengpeng Liu; Ianessa Morantte; Cole Haynes; William B. Mair; Alban Longchamp; Milos R. Filipovic; T. Keith Blackwell#; Collin Y. Ewald#. ATF-4 and hydrogen sulfide signalling mediate longevity in response to inhibition of translation or mTORC1. Nature Communications. 2022. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28599-9).