From April 16th to 17th, the 56th session of our school's Frontier Forum was held in the academic lecture hall on the first floor of Zhigong Building on the Zhongdu Campus. This session invited six experts and scholars, including Academician Li Lin from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Researcher Wu Jiarui from the Excellence Innovation Center for Molecular and Cellular Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Xu Zhengping from Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Professor Chang Zengyi from Peking University Health Science Center, Professor Lei Qunying from the Basic Medical Sciences College of Fudan University, and Professor Li Guohong from Wuhan University Health Science Center, to attend and give academic reports. Focusing on frontier fields such as pancreatic islet homeostasis, active health, targeted tumor therapy, bacterial resistance mechanisms, metabolic reprogramming, and chromatin structure epigenetics, the forum provided a scholarly feast blending ideas and wisdom for teachers and students.
Li Lin, with the topic of "Unexpected Discovery in the Study of the New Mechanism of 'Fate' in Wnt Signaling", shared the important achievements of the research team in the study of the Wnt signaling pathway. The team discovered that CXorf67 can inhibit homologous recombination repair, resulting in a synthetic lethal effect on tumor cells to PARP inhibitors, providing a new targeted treatment strategy for this highly aggressive pediatric brain tumor.
Wu Jiarui shared the "Proactive Health" strategy, facing the challenges of aging and chronic disease prevention and control in China head-on. He proposed the "early intervention" approach, using data to demonstrate the immense value of early health management and providing a scientific path for chronic disease prevention and control.
Xu Zhengping focuses on the regulation of pancreatic islet homeostasis, revealing that RNASE4 and RNASE5, as endogenous protective factors, synergistically maintain pancreatic islet function by promoting β-cell proliferation and anti-inflammatory apoptosis, respectively, providing a novel target for the treatment of diabetes.
The subcellular structure of "resuscitation-delaying body" discovered by the Changzengyi team has elucidated the antibiotic resistance mechanism of bacterial persisters for the first time, providing core targets for tackling the challenge of clinical infection recurrence.
Lei Qunying focuses on the analysis of metabolic reprogramming mechanisms in pancreatic cancer, revealing the key role of BCAA metabolism and the AcCoA-NLRX1 axis in tumor progression, providing theoretical support for low BCAA dietary intervention and targeted combination therapy.
Li Guohong's team first resolved the high-resolution structure of 30-nm chromatin fibers, elucidating the mechanism by which histone mutations disrupt chromatin folding and drive tumorigenesis, providing a novel approach for the treatment of epigenetic diseases related to dynamic changes in chromatin structure.
The forum report in this session comprehensively showcased the frontier directions of current medical research, ranging from fundamental breakthroughs in the laboratory to the translational prospects of clinical applications. The rigorous scientific research attitude and innovative academic thinking of the experts provided profound inspiration to the teachers and students who listened to the report on site.
(Text and photos by Peng Zhiwei)
