UM holds UM Scholar Research Forum to share new breakthroughs in targeted lung cancer treatment research

The University of Macau (UM) today (8 April) held the first lecture of the UM Scholar Research Forum series, as part of the celebration of its 40th anniversary. The speaker was Shao Ningyi, an assistant professor in the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS). Dr Shao shared his team’s recent breakthroughs in targeted lung cancer treatment research, which have been published in the internationally renowned journal Nature.

During the lecture, Dr Shao briefly discussed the history of lung squamous cell carcinoma research. In lung squamous cell carcinoma research, it has been found that amplification of a specific region of chromosome 8 promotes the development of lung squamous cell carcinoma. Initially, the main candidate cancer driver gene was the FGFR1 protein, but attempts to use the FGFR1 protein as a target for inhibition were unsuccessful in clinical trials. In this study, Dr Shao’s team found that the H3K36 methyltransferase NSD3 is also located in this region of chromosome 8. Through experiments on mice, they found that NSD3 can slow down tumour growth and prolong survival in mice. This finding provides a new potential therapeutic target for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. The researchers also identified a genetic mutation in NSD3, common in patients with this type of tumour, which increases the catalytic activity of histone H3K36 both in vivo and in vitro. This mutation triggers a catalytic change in NSD3 that accelerates tumourigenesis and reduces overall survival in mice. The study also revealed that NSD3-dependent tumours may be sensitive to bromodomain inhibitors, which has potential clinical value.

Dr Shao received his PhD degree from the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2011. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Stanford University School of Medicine in New York. He has been an assistant professor in UM’s FHS since 2019. His main research interests are the regulatory mechanisms of transcriptomic and epigenomic linkages in development and disease, as well as the development of related bioinformatics software.

UM Vice Rector Ge Wei delivered a speech at the event. According to Prof Ge, in recent years, UM has achieved remarkable results in scientific research. The timing of this year’s UM Scholar Research Forum series, organised by UM’s Research Services and Knowledge Transfer Office, coincides with the 40th anniversary of the university. The forum invites distinguished UM scholars to present their research findings in an accessible manner, to help the public understand how the applicability of research findings can improve our quality of life. 

Shao Ningyi

The UM Scholar Research Forum is part of the celebration of the university’s 40th anniversary