Jay Xiaojun Tan, PhD

Jay's interest in science began during his undergraduate research at Nanjing University, where he studied biochemistry, cell biology, and pharmacology. During his Ph.D. as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) predoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jay studied stress-induced membrane trafficking and made several discoveries, including the non-canonical role of EGFR in autophagy initiation and lipid regulation of receptor trafficking. Supported by Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship, his postdoctoral work at UT Southwestern focused on lipid regulation of the cGAS/STING innate immune pathway and the role for STING in non-canonical autophagy. Jay's research experience in lysosomal degradation, stress response, autophagy, and innate immunity led him to pursue a career in aging research, which he currently conducts as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He recently discovered the PITT pathway for rapid lysosomal repair, which has broad implications for aging and age-related diseases. Jay received his NIA K01 career development award in January 2022 and started his independent lab in July of the same year in the Aging Institute and Department of Cell Biology at the University of Pittsburgh.