Professor Jiang Changtao

Professor & Boya Distinguished Professor, Peking University School of Basic Medical Sciences| Doctoral Advisor

Connact Information

Email: jiangchangtao@bjmu.edu.cn

Research Areas

Regulation of Gut Microbiota and Host Metabolism

Overview

Professor Jiang Changtao has long been dedicated to research on gut microbiota and host metabolic regulation, establishing a groundbreaking theory on "gut microbiota-derived enzymes and their metabolites cross-kingdom regulation of host metabolic homeostasis and imbalance". His major contributions include:

1. Identifying a series of novel gut microbiota-derived metabolites such as succinylated cholic acid, tryptophan-cholic acid, and an unreported skeleton bile acid named ditail-BA (DTB), constructing an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted workflow for mining microbial specific synthases, and uncovering orphan receptors including MRGPRE as new bile acid receptors—revealing new targets for metabolic diseases.

2. Establishing an enzyme activity-screening platform for discovering microbial enzymes, proposing the new concept of "gut microbial-host isozymes", and revealing multiple isozymes including microbial DPP4 and nicotine-degrading enzyme NicX, providing new breakthroughs for precision treatment of metabolic disorders.

This body of work focuses on novel microbial metabolite synthases and their direct host receptors, elucidating the "Microbial Enzyme - Metabolite - Host Receptor" regulatory axis, and enabling cross-kingdom precision intervention in metabolic diseases. It carries significant theoretical innovation and commercialization potential.

Professor Jiang has published over 50 papers as corresponding (or co-corresponding) author in top-tier journals including Science (2025a, 2025b, 2023), Cell (2025a, 2025b, 2024), and Nature (2025, 2022), among which 12 were highlighted in dedicated commentaries in journals such as Cell and Science, and 13 were listed as ESI Highly Cited Papers.

He has received numerous prestigious awards, including China's Top 10 Life Science Research Advances (twice), China's Top 10 Science and Technology Advances in Universities. He also serves as Vice President of the Biophysical Society of China, President of the Beijing Society for Immunology, and Editorial Board Member of the journal Cell Metabolism, among other roles.

Representative Publications

1. Ding Y^#, Luo X^#, Guo JS^#, Xing BY^#, Lin HY^#, Ma HH, Wang YC, Li M, Ye C, Yan S, Lin KJ, Zhuo YY, Nie QX, Yang DH, Zhang ZP, Pang YL, Wang K*, Ma M*, Lai LH*, Jiang CT*. Identification of gut microbial bile acid metabolic enzymes via an AI-assisted pipeline.  Cell  (In press)（Corresponding author）

2. Lin J^#, Nie Q^#, Cheng J^#, Zhong YN^#, Zhang TY^#, Zhang XY^#, Ge XY^#, Ding Y^#, Niu CY, Gao YH, Wang K, Gao MX, Wang XM, Chen WX, Yun CY, Xu JK, Zhang LJ, Shang P, Luo X, Zhang ZW, Zheng X, Sha XY, Zhang JX, Nie SP, Zhang XG, Ren FZ, Liu HY, Dong ED, Yu X*, Ji LN*, Pang YL*, Sun JP*, Jiang CT*. The microbial amino acid-conjugated bile acid tryptophan-cholic acid improves glucose homeostasis via the orphan GPCR MRGPRE.  Cell  2025, 188 (17): 4530-4548.e25（Corresponding author）

3. Nie QX^#, Luo X^#, Wang K^#, Ding Y^#, Jia SM^#, Zhao QX, Li M, Zhang JX, Zhuo YY, Lin J, Guo CH, Zhang ZW, Liu HY, Zeng GY, You J, Sun LL, Lu H, Ma M, Jia YX*, Zheng MH*, Pang YL*, Qiao J*, Jiang CT*. Gut symbionts alleviate MASH through a secondary bile acid biosynthetic pathway.  Cell  2024, 187(11): 2717-2734.e33（Corresponding author）

4. Wang K^#, Zhang Z^#, Hang J^#, Liu J^#, Guo F^#, Ding Y, Li M, Nie Q, Lin J, Zhuo Y, Sun L, Luo X, Zhong Q, Ye C, Yun C, Zhang Y, Wang J, Bao R, Pang Y, Wang G*, Gonzalez FJ*, Lei X*, Qiao J*, Jiang CT*. Microbial-host-isozyme analyses reveal microbial DPP4 as a potential antidiabetic target.  Science  2023, Aug 4;381(6657): eadd5787.（Corresponding author）

5. Chen B^#, Sun L^#, Zeng G^#, Shen Z^#, Wang K^#, Yin L^#, Xu F, Wang P, Ding Y, Nie Q, Wu Q, Zhang Z, Xia J, Lin J, Luo Y, Cai J, Krausz K, Zheng R, Xue Y, Zheng MH*, Li Y*, Yu C*, Gonzalez FJ*, Jiang CT*. Gut bacteria alleviate smoking-related NASH by degrading gut nicotine.  Nature.  2022, Oct;610(7932): 562-568. （Corresponding author）

6. Zhou S^#, Li M^#, Wang P^#, Guo C, Zhang J, Luo X, Fan YC, Chen EQ, Qi X, Chen J, Ye L, Yuan HY, Yin WB, Wang K*, Zheng MH*, Pang Y*, Qiao J*, Jiang CT*. A symbiotic filamentous gut fungus ameliorates MASH via a secondary metabolite-CerS6-ceramide axis.  Science . 2025;388(6746):eadp5540.（Corresponding author）

7. Lin H^#, Ma C^#, Cai K^#, Guo L^#, Wang X^#, Lv L^#, Zhang C^#, Lin J^#, Zhang D, Ye C, Wang T, Huang S, Han J, Zhang Z, Gao J, Zhang M, Pu Z, Li F, Guo Y, Zhou X, Qin C, Yi F, Yu X*, Kong W*, Jiang CT*, Sun JP*. Metabolic signaling of ceramides through the FPR2 receptor inhibits adipocyte thermogenesis.  Science . 2025;388(6746):eado4188.（Co-corresponding author）

8. Zhang S^#, Lin H^#, Wang J^#, Rui J^#, Wang T^#, Cai Z^#, Huang S^#, Gao Y, Ma T, Fan R, Dai R, Li Z, Jia Y, Chen Q, He H, Tan J, Zhu S, Gu R, Dong Z, Li M, Xie E, Fu Y, Zheng J*, Jiang CT*, Sun J*, Kong W*. Sensing ceramides by CYSLTR2 and P2RY6 to aggravate atherosclerosis.  Nature . 2025;641(8062):476-485.（Co-corresponding author）

9. Sun LL^#, Xie C^#, Wang G^#, Wu Y^#, Wu Q, Wang XM, Liu J, Deng YY, Xia JL, Chen B, Zhang SY, Yun CY, Lian G, Zhang, XJ, Zhang H, Bisson WH, Shi JM, Gao XX, Ge PP, Liu CH, Krausz KW, Nichols RG, Cai JW, Rimal B, Patterson AD, Wang X, Gonzalez FJ, Jiang CT* Gut microbiota and intestinal FXR mediate the clinical benefits of metformin.  Nature Medicine  2018, 24(12): 1919-1929.（Corresponding author）

10. Wu Q^#, Liang XY^#, Wang K^#, Lin J, Wang XM, Wang PC, Zhang YM, Nie QX, Liu HY, Zhang ZP, Liu JH, Pang YL, Jiang CT*. Intestinal hypoxia-inducible factor 2α regulates lactate levels to shape the gut microbiome and alter thermogenesis,  Cell Metabolism , 2021, 33(10): 1988-2003.e7（Corresponding author）

Student Supervision

He has supervised a total of 11 Ph.D. students, 3 Master's students, and 8 postdoctoral fellows to successful completion of their programs. Notably, 14 of these former trainees have embarked on academic and research careers, holding positions that include 2 Professors, 1 Associate Professor, 5 Research Fellows, 3 Associate Research Fellows, and 3 Assistant Research Fellows.