Jianjin Shi

Jianjin Shi is a graduate student from Dr. Feng Shao’s lab at National Institute of Biological Science (NIBS), Beijing, China. He studies how the body recognizes and fends off invading pathogens. During his PhD training, Shi discovered the intracellular sensors (caspase-4/5 in human and caspase-11 in mouse) that recognize lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the component of the bacterial cell wall that activates sepsis. He also performed a 300,000 small molecule compound screen and identified several lead compounds that may provide new treatment for sepsis, a disease without any known treatment. His discovery of the LPS intracellular sensing pathway was recognized as Signaling Breakthroughs of 2014 by the journal Science Signaling and China’s top 10 scientific breakthroughs (2014) by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Shi has received several awards, including Ray Wu Prize (2015) for excellence in life science research (only 10 graduate students winners in China each year) and excellent graduate student of NIBS (2014 & 2015). In his spare time, Shi enjoys hiking, horseback riding, and learning about science history.