Recently, research group of professor Yin Zhinan in the college of life sciences in Nankai university, which was also in state key laboratory of drug chemical biology, made a breakthrough in the study of acute hepatitis, the research result is published in top journal Hepatology in the field of liver disease research.

Hepatitis is one of high incidence of diseases worldwide, China is a country where it exists high incidence of hepatitis, most of them are caused by viral infection, viral antigen goes into the body, elicits an immune system response which will cause inflammation and liver damage. The mortality rate of acute liver injury caused by acute severe viral liver disease is up to 40% -80%, while detailed pathogenesis is not enough to understand, so it has important significance to study the mechanism. Research group of professor Yin Zhinan discovered a new small molecule cytokine IL-27p28, which could effectively inhibit interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in ConA-induced acute hepatitis in mice by gene therapy, thereby reduce liver damage in animal disease model.

Ph.D. student Zhang Song in research group of Yin zhinan, designed a new gene knockout method, constructed and reported the world's first and only p28 conditional knockout mice, the conditional mice provided an effective genetic tool to study the function of p28, promoting specific gene knockout in the cell and organ to be achieved. Thus, it was the first report and in-depth study of high sensitivity of p28 gene-deficient mice for acute hepatitis. It was also the first time to give the idea and confirm that dendritic cells are the main source of p28 in ConA-induced hepatitis in mice. Further research found that deletion of this gene leading to hepatitis highly sensitivity is non-NKT cell-dependent, changing the traditional viewpoint of people on the role of NKT in hepatitis. Thereby, it was the first known construction of hypersensitivity hepatitis animal models mediated by CD4+T cells but not NKT cells, IFN-γ from CD4+T cells mediated high sensitivity to liver injury in mice. Research from Yin zhinan research group also earliest found that p28 played an important role for CD4+ internal ability to produce IFN-γ. For the first time, they gave the explanation of thymic selection theory, and verified it by using mouse organ transplant technology. These studies not only contribute a lot to clinical treatment of acute hepatitis, but also provide new knowledge to the field of hepatology and immunology research.

Professor Yin zhinan gained his PhD degree in Free University of Berlin in Germany, then went to Yale University and engaged in research work. In 2007, he worked as a dean in the college of life science in Nankai university. In the past 5 years, Professor Yin zhiNan was chief scientist of 973 projects, Changjiang Scholar, and undertook a number of major research projects, like National outstanding youth science foundation, National natural science foundation of china, 973, and international cooperation etc. Professor Yin zhinan has published a number of important academic articles in the field of immunology main journals, and get a high reputation.

In the April of 2009, Professor Yin zhinan and several outstanding scholars, who once study abroad and has made remarkable achievements, establish Tianjin Sungene biotech Co., Ltd. They research and produce all kinds of biology reagents, including fluorescently labeled antibody reagent for flow cytometry, fluorescent bio-analysis agents, all kinds of tag antibodies, Loading Control Antibodies, series of secondary antibodies, immunohistochemistry antibodyetc., it is the first domestic biotechnology company with independent research and development of biological reagents. The company has made significant progress in products development, especially a breakthrough in fluorescent-labeling of various types of biological antibodies, it is currently in the stage of rapid development.