Zheng Cao
Veterinary toxicologist at Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin whose group studies how pollutants and food toxins damage the kidney, liver and gut in mice
Heilongjiang Key Laboratory for Laboratory Animals and Comparative Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin
Zheng Cao was senior author of a 2026 Environmental Science & Technology study (MIAO2026) on EDPrB, a liquid-crystal monomer, one of the chemicals used in flat screens that can leak into the environment. In mice, EDPrB built up in the kidney and caused chronic kidney disease. The team traced the harm to overactive mTOR, the cell's growth switch. When mTOR stays on, autophagy, the cell's self-cleaning system, is held back, and the kidney developed inflammation and fibrosis, a stiff scar tissue. Rapamycin, which blocks mTOR, prevented the damage, which marked mTOR activation as the first step in the chain. Human kidney cells grown in a dish gave matching results.
The study is written as an adverse outcome pathway, a step-by-step map from the first molecular hit to disease that toxicologists use to judge chemical risks. It is evidence from mice and cultured cells, not from exposed people.
Cao's group at the Heilongjiang Key Laboratory for Laboratory Animals and Comparative Medicine in Harbin works on how contaminants injure organs. Recent papers from the group show that the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol, a common contaminant of grain, breaks down the gut barrier (2024) and harms the liver through excessive mitophagy, the removal of mitochondria (2025), that the plastic chemical bisphenol F causes kidney inflammation and fibrosis through stress in the endoplasmic reticulum (2026), and that a berberine gel can ease mastitis in a mouse model (2026).
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | Chronic Kidney Disease Risk Posed by 1-Ethoxy-2,3-difluoro-4-(trans-4-propylcyclohexyl) Benzene (EDPrB): An AOP of mTOR-Mediated Autophagy Dysregulation. MIAO2026 Senior author: led the mouse and cell study showing that the pollutant EDPrB causes kidney disease through mTOR overactivation, which rapamycin prevented. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Zheng Cao.
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- Chenjiao Miao Researcher in Zheng Cao's group at Northeast Agricultural University who studies how environmental and food toxins damage organs in mice, and first author of the 2026 study tying a screen chemical to kidney disease through mTOR
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