Dr Xinhui Wu won the NRS SAB Best Paper Award 2023 for her paper entitled by “A transcriptomics-guided drug target discovery strategy identifies receptor ligands for lung regeneration”, which is published on March 23, 2022, in the journal Science Advances.
In this paper, we provided new insights of the molecular mechanisms on COPD with the assistance of multiple omics analysis. Specifically, by generating transcriptomics signatures of lung epithelial progenitors derived from mice exposed to cigarette smoke (CS), we uncovered dynamic molecular signalling pathways such as the circadian clock rhythm signalling pathway which was poorly studied in the field of lung repair. This expands the current knowledge of understanding COPD as well as provides a foundation on novel drug development. In addition, we examined our potential drug targets using multiple COPD models including a CS-induced 3D lung organoid assay, which not only allows us to examine the regenerative capabilities of our drug targets in lung stem/progenitor cells but also to understand the interactions between the stem niche cells in different conditions.
At the 27th Congress of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR 2023) held in Singapore in November 2023, Dr. Xinhui Wu won the APSR/ERS Young Investigator Award supported by European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR). On behalf of her team, she gave a talk on the “The secretome of pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells supports alveolar epithelial growth”, which is supported by the Dutch Lung Foundation (Longfonds). This motivated all the young investigators working on the project and made our contribution to the field of lung repair in chronic respiratory diseases more meaningful.
