Zhi-Lie Cao
Urologist in Zhejiang who works with colleagues on inherited endocrine tumour syndromes and wrote a review re-examining how FLCN loss changes mTORC1 signalling in Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome
Department of Urology, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province, affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University (2026) · Department of Urology / Oncologic and Urologic Surgery, 903rd PLA Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College (2023–2025)
Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome is an inherited condition caused by faults in the FLCN gene. People with it can get benign skin bumps, air-filled cysts in the lungs that may cause a collapsed lung, and kidney tumours. For years the explanation was simple: lose FLCN and mTORC1, the growth-control complex, is switched on everywhere. In a 2026 review in Frontiers in Oncology (CAO2026), Zhi-Lie Cao, first author, with Wei-Ying Chen as senior author, argues that this picture does not fit the evidence. FLCN acts on the RagC/D switch proteins, which control only some mTORC1 targets, above all the MiT/TFE transcription factors. Losing both copies of FLCN lets these factors pile up in the nucleus and drives kidney tumours, while losing one copy may be enough for lung and skin changes. As a review, it reports no new experiments.
PubMed shows Cao as a urologist. In 2023 and 2025 papers the address is the urology and oncologic surgery department of the 903rd PLA Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College; by 2026 it is the Department of Urology of Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province, affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University. With Chen and Xiao-Ping Qi, Cao has co-authored case reports and literature reviews on rare tumours, including a primary seminoma of the prostate (2023) and families with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A caused by RET mutations (2025, 2026). No official profile page was found.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R | Substrate-selective mTORC1 regulation and gene dosage-dependent tissue divergence in Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome CAO2026 First author: argued in a review that FLCN controls mTORC1 selectively through RagC/D, and that FLCN gene dosage explains why kidney, lung and skin are affected differently. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Zhi-Lie Cao.
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- Wei-Ying Chen Urologist at Taizhou Hospital in Zhejiang and senior author of a review on why FLCN loss affects mTORC1 selectively in Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome
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