Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine

A team led by Gonçalo Castelo-Branco with researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University found that oligodendrocytes, a cell type in the central nervous system known to be targeted in multiple sclerosis (MS), arise in brain during human development much earlier than mainly thought. The findings could be relevant for developing regenerative-based therapies for MS.

Researchers at Yale University, in collaboration with the team led by Gonçalo Castelo-Branco, have developed a new technology, spatial-CUT&Tag, that gives precise information about the location of activated and inactivated genes in a specific tissue. The technology has a broad range of scientific and medical applications, and can provide important knowledge about the development of disease.

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.

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.