Lanying Du
Faculty Distinguished University Professor- Biography
Dr. Du is a Distinguished University Professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. Her research mainly focuses on the rational design and development of effective and safe vaccines and therapeutic agents to prevent and treat infection caused by coronaviruses and flaviviruses, and understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of these viruses.
Dr. Du is listed among the Highly Cited Researchers from 2021 to 2023 by the Web of Science (Clarivate). Dr. Du is also listed among the world’s top 2 percent most-cited scientists from 2021 to 2023 by Stanford University.
Research Interests
- Research and development of universal vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the COVID-19, SARS-CoV-1, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and other coronaviruses with pandemic potential.
- Research and development of antibodies and other therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, and other coronaviruses with pandemic potential.
- Research and development of vaccines, antibodies, and other therapeutic agents against flaviviruses, including Zika virus, Dengue virus, and other flaviviruses with pandemic potential.
- Study of the pathogenic mechanisms of coronaviruses and flaviviruses, based on which to design and develop novel, effective, and safe vaccines and therapeutics.
- Research fields and tools: virology, immunology, cell biology, molecular biology, structural biology, and other related fields, nanotechnologies, vaccine design, characterization, and evaluation, antibody generation and evaluation, drug screening and validation, etc.
- Publications
- Tai W, Zhang X, Yang Y, Zhu J, Du L. Advances in mRNA and other vaccines against MERS-CoV. Transl Res. 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2021.11.007.
- Du L, Yang Y, Zhang X. Neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Cell Mol Immunol. 2021;18:2293.
- Geng Q, Tai W, Baxter VK, Shi J, Wan Y, Zhang X, Montgomery SA, Taft-Benz SA, Anderson EJ, Knight AC, Dinnon Lii KH, Leist SR, Baric RS, Shang S, Hong SW, Drelich A, Tseng CK, Jenkins M, Heise M, Du L, Li F. Novel virus-like nanoparticle vaccine effectively protects animal model from SARS-CoV-2 infection. PloS Pathog. 2021;17:e1009897.
- Gambino F Jr, Tai W, Voronin D, Zhang Y, Zhang X, Shi J, Wang X, Wang N, Du L, Qiao L. A vaccine inducing solely cytotoxic T lymphocytes fully prevents Zika virus infection and fetal damage. Cell Rep. 2021;35:109107.
- Yang Y, Du L. SARS-CoV-2 spike protein: a key target for eliciting persistent neutralizing antibodies. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2021;6:95.