Dr PU Yujie, a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. HUANG Yu in the Department of Biomedical Sciences (BMS), received a NSFC – Young Scientists Fund on 24 August 2023.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) – Young Scientist Fund aims to provide promising young researchers with support to conduct independent innovative research. This scheme also helps to train the critical and innovative thinking of young researchers, thus cultivates future talents in basic research in China.

Dr Pu’s NSFC-funded project is entitled “Endothelial TBK1 activation promotes endothelial inflammation and the formation of atherosclerotic plaque through activating MAPK signaling pathway”. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is among the leading causes of death worldwide while atherosclerosis is one of the main causes of CVD. It is still in urgent need to identify novel therapeutic agents to inhibit the development of atherogenesis in patients. With the support of this NSFC-Young Scientists Fund, Dr Pu will work to identify the functional and molecular role of endothelial TBK1 in vascular inflammation and the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in mouse models and aims to provide a scientific basis for developing new effective therapies targeting TBK1 for the treatment of atherosclerotic vascular disease.

BMS extends congratulations to Yujie on this oustanding achievement. We’re proud to have you in our scientific community!