Education

2003-2007 B.S. in Biology

College of Biology, Hunan University, China

2007-2013 Ph. D. in Biology, Supervisor: Dr. Bing Zhou

School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, China

Working Experiences

2013-2015 Postdoctoral Researcher, Supervisor: Dr. Bing Zhou

School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, China

2015-2019 Postdoctoral Researcher and Assistant project scientist,

Supervisor: Dr. Susan Ferro-Novick, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, USA

2020-present Professor; Principle Investigator

Medical Research Institute, Wuhan University, China

Research Direction：Our lab is studying the molecular mechanism of selective autophagy (mainly focused on ER-phagy) and its disease relevance (mainly focused on neurodegeneration). We use yeast, fruit fly and mouse as research model organisms.

Selected Publications

[1] Yixian Cui, Smriti Parashar, Muhammad Zahoor, Patrick G. Needham, Muriel Mari, Ming Zhu, Shuliang Chen, Hsuan-Chung Ho, Fulvio Reggiori, Hesso Farhan, Jeffrey L. Brodsky, and Susan Ferro-Novick*. A COPII subunit acts with an autophagy receptor to target endoplasmic reticulum for degradation. Science 365, 53 –60, 2019;

[2] Xuehong Qian, Lingang He, Jiejie Yang, Jiajia Sun, Xueying Peng, Yuting Zhang, Yizhou Mao, Ying Zhang and Yixian Cui*. UVRAG cooperates with cargo receptors to assemble the ER-phagy site. The EMBO Journal e13625, 2023;

[3] Wenqing Mou, Yinglu Tang, Yunpeng Huang, Zhihao Wu*, Yixian Cui*. Upregulation of neuronal ER-phagy improves organismal fitness and alleviates APP toxicity. Cell Reports 43, 114255, 2024;

[4] Xuehong Qian, Jiajia Sun and Yixian Cui*. UVRAG: orchestrating the initiation of reticulophagy. Autophagy 2023;

[5] Lingang He, Xuehong Qian, Yixian Cui*. Advances in ER-phagy and its diseases relevance. Cells 10(9):2328, 2021;

[6] Yixian Cui, Smriti Parashar, and Susan Ferro-Novick*. A new role for a COPII cargo adaptor in autophagy. Autophagy Dec 3:1-3, 2019;

[7] Shuliang Chen, Yixian Cui, Smriti Parashar, Peter J. Novick*, and SusanFerro-Novick*. ER-phagy requires Lnp1, a protein that stabilizes rearrangements of the ER network. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115(27), E6237-E6244, 2018;

[8] Shuliang Chen, Muriel Mari, Smriti Parashar, Dongmei Liu, Yixian Cui, Fulvio Reggiori, Peter J. Novick*, Susan Ferro-Novick*. Vps13 is required for the packaging of the ER into autophagosomes during ER-phagy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117(31), 18530-18539, 2020;

[9] Yixian Cui^#, * Shanke Zhao^#, Xudong Wang, Bing Zhou*. A novel Drosophila mitochondrial carrier protein acts as a Mg²⁺ exporter in fine-tuning mitochondrial Mg²⁺ homeostasis Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) –Molecular Cell Research 1863, 30–39, 2016;

[10] Yixian Cui^#, *, Shanke Zhao^#, Juan Wang, Xudong Wang, Bingquan Gao, Qiangwang Fan, Fei Sun, Bing Zhou*. A novel mitochondrial carrier protein Mme1 acts as a yeast mitochondrial magnesium exporter. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) –Molecular Cell Research 1853, 724–732, 2015;

[11] Yixian Cui, Shanke Zhao, Zhihao Wu, Pinghua Dai, Bing Zhou*. Mitochondrial release of the NADH dehydrogenase Ndi1 induces apoptosis in yeast. Molecular Biology of the Cell 23, 22, 4373-4382, 2012.