Source: Office of Medical Science
Written by: Office of Medical Science
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Recently, Erwei Song's team form Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, has obtained an 18-million grant from the Major Research Plan of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This project was initiated by Professor Erwei Song and was tilted as "Functional and mechanistic studies of long noncoding RNA regulatory networks regulating malignant tumor metastasis". Professor Qimin Zhan from Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Professor Mengfeng Li from Sun Yan-sen University also participated in the project. It was the first time that Sun Yat-sen University has led the NSFC Major Research Plan grant in the field of medicine.
 
The Major Research Plan of National Natural Science Foundation of China is established for the demand of the national economic construction, 
social sustainable development and the development of science and technology. It aims to solve the key science problem of strategic significance within multidisciplinary comprehensive research and interdisciplinary research, as well as enhancing the ability of original innovation in basic research. Based on in-depth discussion, the Major Research Plan sponsors the 'Growing Points’ of scientific projects by means of Unified Planning and Progress-based Funding.
 
Professor Song’s team has established the platform for studying lncRNAome, protein-lncRNA interaction and tumor microenvironment-tumor cell plasticity interaction. This project is based on the tumor and lncRNAome platform and will focus on the function and mechanism of lncRNA on the metastasis of malignant cancer. RNA immunoprecipitation-deep sequencing of metastasis-associated proteins will be used to identify their interacting lncRNAs in paired samples of primary lesion and metastatic lesion in esophageal and breast tumor. The project will study the function of these lncRNAs regulating tumor cell plasticity and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo, illustrate the role of lncRNA in regulating the expression, modification and function of metastasis-associated proteins, and explore the underlying molecular mechanism of how lncRNAs act on signal transduction. Moreover, the role and mechanism of stromal specific lncRNAs regulating the activation and metastasis-promoting function of stromal cells will be uncovered.
 
By carrying out this project, Prof. Song’s team will have a clear idea of the role and mechanism of lncRNAs in regulating tumor cell plasticity, metastasis-associated cell signaling, and tumor micro-environment, and may even identify novel targets for tumor metastatic intervention, which will bring hope in the battle against cancer.