Zhixun Dou, Ph.D.
The Dou laboratory seeks to understand the biology of aging and to develop new strategies for intervening in age-related diseases.
The Dou lab investigates the intersection of aging and cancer, with a particular emphasis on nuclear events. Their discoveries have revealed that the cell nucleus undergoes degeneration during both aging and tumorigenesis. The team’s goal is to elucidate the mechanisms driving nuclear degeneration and to develop novel approaches for targeting inflammation associated with aging and cancer.
Key research areas include nuclear autophagy, cellular senescence, chromatin and epigenetics in the context of aging and cancer.
Biography
Dr. Dou is a Principal Investigator at the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. He earned his B.S. from Nankai University, China, and his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University, NY. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Shelley Berger at the University of Pennsylvania. His research introduced a new perspective in autophagy, termed “nuclear autophagy”, by demonstrating the degradation of nuclear components via mammalian autophagy (Dou, et al, Nature 2015; Wang et al, Nature 2025). He also contributed to the understanding of senescence and aging-associated chronic inflammation by showing cytoplasmic chromatin in activating the cytosolic DNA sensing pathway (Dou et al, Nature 2017). His laboratory investigates both nuclear protein and DNA degeneration in aging and cancer.
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