On the morning of August 29, Inner Mongolia University held a press conference to announce a historic milestone: the university’s first-ever publication as the first-affiliated institution in a top-tier “CNS” journal (Cell, Nature, Science). The study, published in the flagship journal Cell, was led by Professor Xu Chengran, Distinguished Professor at Inner Mongolia University, and Dr. Yang Li, “Junma Program” Researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research, in collaboration with a team from Peking University.

This research is the first to reveal that the maternal liver undergoes unique and highly regulated metabolic changes during both pregnancy and lactation. These findings deepen our understanding of how a mother's body strategically reallocates energy during the phases of gestation and nursing, and open new avenues for improving maternal-infant health and enhancing the nutritional quality of dairy products.

As the core institution behind this major achievement, Inner Mongolia University fully leveraged the strength of its top-tier biology discipline, assembling a high-level research team to uncover the distinct metabolic mechanisms of the maternal liver during pregnancy and lactation.

This groundbreaking discovery not only represents a major scientific advancement in life sciences, but also offers novel directions for molecular animal science and reproductive medicine, underscoring the university’s innovative capacity and academic leadership in cutting-edge research.