About me

I am a PhD student enrolled in Shandong University School of Medicine and I finished my clinical training in China. I came to the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research for the research part of my PhD. Research is very different from clinical medicine but I love research very much. I am happy to work with cells and lung tissues and I learned a lot of things from the rest of the group. I hope to find out something from research that may help my patients in the future

About my project

My project is about the promoter regulation of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in asthmatic airway smooth muscle cells. CTGF plays an important role in new blood vessels formation which is a prominent feature of airway remodelling in asthma. Our previous work has shown increased expression of CTGF in asthmatic tissue and greater release of CTGF from asthmatic airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells, compared to non-asthmatic ASM cells, after transforming growth factor (TGF)-β stimulation. We aim to find information about the differential regulation of CTGF in asthmatic ASM cells on promoter level which may provide new mechanisms for the development of new therapeutic approaches in asthma.