Jian-Ping Jin, known as J.-P., joined Dr. Jim Lin’s Lab in 1986, after graduating from the Fourth Military Medical University in China. Jin, who trained as a cardiologist in China, spent his time in Dr. Lin’s lab studying troponin, a protein that regulates the contraction of skeletal and cardiac muscles.

Jin says that he enjoyed the “open and welcoming educational environment at the UI” and the helpful professors and staff he found in the Department of Biology, especially Dr. Lin’s wife, Jenny, who also worked as a research assistant in the lab. In 1989, Jin finished his Ph.D. in biology in three years and four months – a record in the department at that time. In addition, his thesis research with Professor Lin generated a total of six papers of which five are first author publications. Jin credits the department with supporting him “all the way through his career as an educator and researcher.”

“He’s a sweet, gentle man with the most remarkable knowledge base ever,” says Theresa Hegmann, who worked with Jin in the Lin Lab.

Since 2009, Jin has been Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, the largest single campus medical school in the United States. He was awarded the William D. Traitel Endowed Chair in Physiology in June 2015. Jin has lectured nationally and internationally. He has published over 140 research articles and has written several review articles and edited two books about troponin. Jin is also editor-in-chief of the journal, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He is a chartered member of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Cardiac Contractility, Hypertrophy and Failure Study Section; and the Principal Investigator (PI) on two NIH R01 grants, a R01 Supplement, and a R21 grant. He also serves as the PI and Program Director on a highly competitive NIH T32 training grant, which is the only pre-doctoral cardiovascular T32 program in the state of Michigan.

A leading researcher in the field of muscle contractility and cell motility studies, Jin holds four U.S. patents. His research has had a profound impact on the diagnosis of heart attacks and the treatment of heart failure and cancer metastasis.