Dr. Huazheng Liang received his Ph.D from the School of Medical Sciences, The University of New South Wales in 2012. He also had a M.Path from Fudan University after graduating his MBBS from Shandong First Medical University (former Taishan Medical College) in 2003. Prior to Monash, he has spent many years working in hospitals and universities in both China and Australia. Most recently he was a Principal Investigator at the Translational Research Institute of Brain and Brain-like Intelligence, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University. Before that, he was a lecturer in Pharmacology with Western Sydney University in Australia. His research has been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, ARC as well as industries and charity organizations. He has been serving as the section editor for Science Progress, and Guest Editor for Frontiers in Pharmacology and Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

Drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases

Complementary medicine for stroke

Neural circuits of anti-nociception, learning, memory, and anxiety/depression

Drug delivery using nanoparticles for neurological diseases and cancers.

Master projects

Project 1：The therapeutic effect of Xiaoxuming decoction on ischemic stroke and underlying vascular mechanisms

Thrombolysis and endovascular thrombectomy have become the standard therapies for acute ischemic stroke patients within 4.5 hours after the stroke onset. However, only less than half of these patients will fully recover after receiving these therapies. One of the key reasons is that pericytes surrounding the capillaries contract when ischemia occurs leading to blood cells stuck in the capillaries. Pericyte contraction continues even after recanalization has been achieved with thrombolysis or thrombectomy. Currently, there are no medications available to treat this condition. Interestingly, Traditional Chinese Medicine has a few herbal decoctions to manage ischemic stroke even 48 hours after the onset. One of the well-known recipes is Xiaoxuming decoction (XXMD). This project aims to test the therapeutic effect of XXMD on ischemic stroke and its potential mechanisms, especially the changes of pericytes. Behavioural, histological, and molecular techniques will be applied to this project.

Project 2: Drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is known for over 100 years, but there is still no cure for this condition. The prevailing theories of amyloid toxicity, tau toxicity, and neuroinflammation have led to the application of antibodies against these toxic proteins and biological modulators to treat AD. However, none of them succeeded in clinical trials. FDA approved 5 medications and the majority of them aim to increase the level of acetylcholine by suppressing the activity of the acetylcholinesterase, but they have limited effect. Traditional Chinese Medicine offers a bunch of herbal recipes to manage cognitive deficits due to various reasons based on its unique theory.

As increasingly acknowledged that AD is partially the consequence of microcirculation insufficiency which is under regulatory control of pericytes. Therefore, this project aims to test herbal recipes that can target microcirculation in an animal model of AD. Network pharmacology (with our RNA-sequencing data), molecular docking, and behavioural, histological, and molecular tests will be used in this project.

PhD projects

Project 1: Pericytes in the pathogenesis of AD

Alzheimer’s disease has been recognized as a vascular cognitive impairment condition evidenced by reduced capillary networks and glucose metabolism. In the last decade or two, emerging studies have found that pericytes around the capillaries might be the key regulator of these vascular changes. But little is known about the mechanisms. This project will use a pericyte specific Cre-mouse line and Loxp transgenic mice to tackle the molecular mechanisms leading to pericyte contraction, capillary loss, and cognitive impairment. The ultimate aim is to discover small molecules that are able to stop or reverse the above alterations. This project will require substantial animal work on breeding, behavioural testing, imaging, and molecular testing. In addition, chemogenetic or optogenetic methods will be applied whenever possible.

Project 2: Neural circuits for learning, memory and depression/anxiety

This project is a part of the Chinese Brain Initiative, aiming to find out new circuits that are responsible for cognitive impairment and concurrent depression/anxiety or apathy. Various animal models of AD will be used and chemogenetic or optogenetic methods will be applied to test which neural circuit is responsible for learning/memory deficits and accompanying depression, anxiety, or apathy. This project will require substantial animal work on behavioural testing using diverse behavioural paradigms, histology and imaging, as well as molecular testing.