On December 18, 2019, Atsushi Kuno (Atsushi Kuno), a senior director researcher at AIST of Japan, was invited by Prof. Zhang Yan of our school to visit the National Facility for Translational Medicine (Shanghai) and Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine of SJTU[l2] and presented on “Lectin Array-based Therapeutic Target Discovery” as a lecture of the STAR Series on Translational Medicine.
Atsushi Kuno is currently a key member of the SCSB-AIST Joint Medical Glycomics Lab, which is jointly established by the Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine of SJTU and AIST. The Lab was founded on April 9, 2011, at the 115th anniversary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The Lab has carried out several important research and the results have been published in 15 SCI papers and applied for 2 marker invention patents, one of which has been granted. The Lab has also promoted academic visits and exchanges between China and Japan, jointly cultivated Ph.D. students and postdocs, and trained many young talents in glycobiology research.
Atsushi Kuno has long been committed to the development and application of glycoprotein glycan analysis technology. He developed the first highly sensitive glycan lectin microarray detection technology (Nature Methods, 2005) and has widely applied it to the development and application of clinical diagnostic biomarkers. Atsushi Kuno has been granted 66 patents and published 111 research papers. Given the significant impact on clinical translational research in glycan technology of his research findings, Atsushi Kuno has won the 2015 Japan AIST Council Award and the 2016 Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award.
At the meeting, Atsushi Kuno systematically introduced the technology, experience, and achievements of the AIST research team in the development of glycan biomarkers, including the joint SCSB-AIST Medical Glycomics Lab established by his Japanese team and SJTU. He also presented the cooperation fruits in the development and validation of glycan-based biomarkers for liver fibrosis.
The lecture was quite informative and received an active response from the audience. In the Q&A session, Prof. Atsushi Kuno had an in-depth academic discussion with the faculty and students of the Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology Biological Sciences on the discovery and application of glycan drug target molecules and the prospect of glycan analysis technology.
After the lecture, Atsushi Kuno continued to discuss and communicate with the teachers and members of the joint laboratory on scientific issues, and both sides made plans and arrangements for the next phase of joint laboratory development. This lecture is not only a summary and exchange of medical sugar research progress between China and Japan but also a starting point for a new stage of cooperation.
Contributed by: Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine
