Recently, a research team led by Associate Professor Dan Yu and Professor Kaihu Yao from Beijing Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China, published a study titled "PRMT3 reverses HIV-1 latency by increasing chromatin accessibility to form a TEAD4-P-TEFb-containing transcriptional hub" in Nature Communications. The study reveals that the host protein PRMT3 can bind to the promoter region of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) genome, promoting HIV-1 transcription and reactivation from latency.

Associate Professor Dan Yu is one of the first batch of Young Cooperative Talents appointed to the CIMR's Organized Research Projects.

Fulltext link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59578-5

Young Cooperative Talent

Dan Yu

Researcher, associate professor and master's supervisor. Vice Director of Laboratory of Infection and Microbiology, Beijing Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, China. 

Her research focused on the study of gene transcriptional control, pathogenesis, and development of new methods for diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Her main academic achievements are: First, she proposed new strategies for the development of anti-infective drugs, which included the discovery of PARP1 inhibitor as a potential novel anti-HIV drug and the unravelling of its mechanisms of regulation of HIV transcription (Cell Reports, 2018), the discovery of nitrosylation inhibitors as potential new strategies against superbugs and the uncovering of the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms (Nature Communications, 2023). Second, she revealed that P-TEFb and DYRK1A dominate gene transcription of cell growth and differentiation respectively (Nucleic Acids Research, 2019). Third, she established a new technology platform for antiviral drug target screening targeting viral gene transcription (Chinese invention patent, 2020).

Her work has been published in top academic journals as the first or corresponding author, and she has been authorized 5 Chinese invention patents. On 2021, she was awarded the ninth batch of "Beijing Outstanding Young Talents".

Project Title:

Discovery of Novel Targets for Antiviral Drugs and Development of Antiviral Drugs: Unraveling the molecular mechanisms by which key host factors interact with viruses to regulate viral pathogenesis

Project Brief Introduction:

Taken the human herpesvirus and HIV as research models, which can lead to lifelong persistent infection, the project uses a high-throughput screening technology platform for antiviral drug targets with independent intellectual property rights to identify new targets of antiviral drugs and uncover the molecular mechanism of viral pathogenesis, aiming to provide new technologies and strategies for the research and development of new antiviral drugs.