SCM scholar and student receive recognition from American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
26 Oct 2015
Dr Li Defang, Research Assistant Professor of the School of Chinese Medicine (SCM), recently won the 2015 Young Investigator Award presented by the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) for his distinguished bone and joint diseases research paper. In his award-winning research paper entitled “Osteoclast-derived exosomal microRNA-214 inhibits osteoblastic bone formation”, Dr Li found that osteoclast-derived exosomal microRNA-214 could transfer in osteoblasts to inhibit bone formation. This is the first-ever study to reveal that microRNA-214 could serve as an intercellular messenger to mediate osteoclast-to-osteoblast communication for inhibiting osteoblastic bone formation.
In addition, Liu Jin, PhD student of SCM, was also awarded the 2015 ASBMR Young Investigator Travel Award for his research paper and delivered a poster presentation at the annual ASBMR meeting held in Seattle, US. Entitled “Osteoclastic microRNA-214 targets PTEN to increase bone resorption”, the award-winning paper reveals that microRNA-214 could target PTEN within osteoclast to increase bone resorption and uncovers the critical role of microRNA-214 in regulating osteoclastic bone resorption.