Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine

Simon Elsässer is one of the three research group leaders at KI who is awarded the European Research Council Proof of Concept (ERC PoC) 2022 grant. The grant will support his research project on hmqPro, and the work in securing IPR and commercialisation of his technology.

Sijie Chen Lab and their collaborators have designed and synthesized a series of cationic cyclometalated Iridium(III) complexes with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties. These phosphorescent agents can be utilized to stain both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and to inactivate the bacteria in a photodynamic process. This manuscript is highlighted as the front cover of Advanced Healthcare Materials, issue 24, 2021.

Gonçalo Castelo-Branco has been newly appointed as Professor of Glial Cell Biology at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics. "When KI opens a Professorship in a specific area, KI is making a commitment that this is an area of interest for KI, both in the present and in the future. I am very eager to contribute to create an environment that fosters research in glial cell biology at KI." said Gonçalo in this interview.

Myelin is a lipid-rich layer wrapping around the axon of neurons which increases the speed of electrical impulses in the brain and the spinal cord. To better visualize these myelinated structures, the Sijie Chen Lab has developed a new AIE-active fluorescent probe, PM-ML, for the staining and imaging of myelin. The staining is compatible with commonly used tissue-clearing methods. The high-contrast images of the myelinated structures acquired allow successful identification and tracking of these myelinated nerve fibres in the nervous system. This may deepen our understanding of three-dimensional neural networks in brains and the histopathology of demyelinating diseases in future neurological studies.

Half of advanced stage lung cancer patients can survive longer than seven years if their tumors are driven by ALK rearrangement and treated by ALK inhibitors, but the remaining half cannot. Zongli Zheng Lab has used deep RNA sequencing, conducted clinical and in vitro experiments to understand the reasons for the poor responses in the remaining half. The study revealed that intratumoral EML4-ALK isoforms may predict the efficacy of targeted therapy in ALK-rearranged NSCLC. Temporal changes of intratumoral fusion isoforms may result from differential selection pressures that a drug might have on one isoform over another. Future therapeutic approaches may be directed to treat alternative RNA splicing-rendered heterogeneity and tumor resistance.