Wu Yiming

My long-term research interest is identifying novel protein targets that contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and the development of biopharmaceuticals to treat this disease. My academic and research background has laid a solid foundation for me to conduct these researches. I graduated from Peking University School of Pharmaceutical Science, where provided me a broad knowledge of biomedicine, chemistry, and pharmaceutical science. I joined Prof. Demin Zhou’s lab for Ph. D. training, and developed numbers of site-specific modified biopharmaceuticals using genetic code expansion technology. These include radioisotope antibody conjugates and cancer cell targeting viral vectors to treat leukemia. All of them got either Chinese or international patents, and some of them got Industrial-scale production. Since then, I become an accomplished bio-drug hunter. However, I am not satisfied with this. I want to have a better understand of leukemia disease and find out the novel targets. I came into touch with the high-throughput sequencing and studied the impacts of stop codon reassignment on normal translation using integrated omics analyses in my Ph.D. training. Fascinated by the studies on CLL with bioinformatics, I joined Prof. Lili Wang’s lab for my post-doctoral training. Prof. Lili Wang is a well-known researcher in the field of CLL. My current project is to investigate the genetic lesion-independent splicing defects in CLL and explored its mechanisms using integrated omics analysis. My study found high spliceosome abundance is a novel independent feature of aggressive CLL. Further I demonstrated that spliceosome abundance is generally regulated by METTL3 through m6A-mediated translational control and aberrant METTL3 upregulation contributes to the splicing defects in CLL. Notably, our results provide a rationale for targeting METTL3 in this disease. I hope through my research, people can get a better understand of this disease, and make METTL3 as a novel target for CLL treatment. These experiences benefit me a lot, that I have acquired solid knowledge and proficient experimental skills in multi-subjects: drug development, cancer biology, omics analysis, nuclear medicine, and organic chemistry. My keenness to research, expand my knowledge, affect lives in a positive way underpins my decision to devote my life to biomedical science.