From November 10 to 15, the 2023 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting was held by the American College of Rheumatology in San Diego. The Meeting is the largest, most prestigious, and most influential academic conference in the international field of osteoarthritis. The team of Prof. Lei Guanghua and Prof. Zeng Chao from the Department of Orthopaedics of Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, delivered five speeches at the conference, introducing to global counterparts five significant research achievements, including Xiangya Osteoarthritis Study and the Xiangya Step Study: (1) Association between Gut Microbiome-related Metabolites and Symptomatic Hand Osteoarthritis in Two Independent Cohorts; (2) Synovitis and the Risk of Incident Hand Osteoarthritis: Data from the Xiangya Osteoarthritis Study; (3) Combining Single-cell RNA Sequencing and Population-based Studies Reveals Hand Osteoarthritis-associated Chondrocyte Subpopulations and Pathways; (4) Memantine Attenuates the Development of Osteoarthritis by Blocking NMDA Receptor Mediated Calcium Overload and Chondrocyte Senescence; (5) Causal Associations between Gut Microbiota and Rheumatic Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study.
The team of Professor Lei and Professor Zeng has spent 10 years establishing two long-term prospective and stable follow-up cohort studies among natural populations in the field of osteoarthritis in China, namely Xiangya Osteoarthritis Study and Xiangya Step Study. The studies involved a total of 11,342 participants and collected objective phenotypic data on various degenerative musculoskeletal diseases, including various types of image data of multiple joints . Besides, a diverse biobank was established (meticulously preserved over 200,000 biological samples), and in-depth multi-omics (including microbiome, metabolome, genome, and imaging) research was conducted, thus providing important support for identifying risk factors and pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. On behalf of the team, Dr. Long Huizhong presented the preliminary research results of these two cohorts at the conference, receiving high recognition from international counterparts including David Felson, an authoritative expert in the international field of osteoarthritis, and Nancy Lane, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the president-elect of OARSI. This has greatly enhanced China’s academic influence in the international field of osteoarthritis.
The team led by Prof. Lei has been committed to the pathogenesis, clinical prevention and treatment, and translational research of osteoarticular diseases. Prof. Lei has been selected as a valid academician candidate for the 2023 Chinese Academy of Engineering, a Leading Talent in National Ten-thousand Talents Plan, the distinguished professor of “Changjiang Scholars Program” of the Ministry of Education, a Young and Middle-Aged Leading Talent in Scientific and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Science, a young and middle-aged expert with outstanding contributions to the national health cause, and an expert receiving special allowance from the State Council. In recent years, he has taken charge of 8 national research projects, including a project of the National Key R&D Program of China, a key program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and the Joint Fund for Regional Innovation and Development of NSFC. Besides, he has published 174 SCI articles as corresponding author in international journals, such asJAMA,BMJ,Ann Intern Med(2 articles),Ann Rheum Dis(2 articles), andArthritis Rheumatol(5 articles), with 26 articles having an impact factor above 10. He has also served as editor-in-chief of 5 clinical diagnosis and treatment guidelines and expert consensuses of the Chinese Medical Association, and has been granted 56 patents, including 18 invention patents and 4 patents successfully translated into practical applications. Prof. Lei, as the first person to complete, won the first prize of the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award, the first prize of MOE Science and Technology Progress Award, and the first prize of Huaxia Medical Science and Technology Award, In addition, he was recognized as a “National Advanced Worker”, and has received the Wu Jieping Medical Innovation Award and the National Award for Excellence in Innovation.
Prof. Zeng was selected as a Young Top-notch Talent in National Ten-thousand Talents Plan, Chief Scientist of the Youth Project of National Key R&D Program of China, National Young People Excelling at Jobs, Leading Talent of Scientific and Technological Innovation in Hunan Province, Hunan Young Talent, Furong Young Scholar of Hunan Province, and one among top 2% of globally leading scientists in 2023. In the past five years, as the first/corresponding author (including co-first or co-corresponding author), he has published 33 SCI articles in well-known journals likeJAMA,Eur Heart J,Ann Rheum Dis,Br J Sports Med(2 articles),Arthritis Rheumatol(4 articles),ACS Nano,Int J Surg(3 articles),JAMA Network Open(2 articles),Bone Research,EBioMedicine(2 articles),ACS Appl Mater Inter,J Cachexia Sarcopeni,BMC Med, andOsteoarthr Cartilage(5 articles). His research results were included in the guidelines or consensusesof27 authoritative organizations in 10 countries, including the American College of Rheumatology, the European League Against Rheumatism, German Pain Society, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association, French Society for Rheumatology, and the Chinese Medical Association, for 49 times.
PIs and postdoctors in the fields of basic research (basic medicine, life sciences, pharmacology, etc.), bioinformatics (genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, microbiomics, etc.), clinical research (epidemiology, health statistics, biostatistics, etc.), biomaterials (materials science and engineering, materials chemistry, chemical engineering, etc.), and translational medicine (innovative drug formulations, computer-aided drug design, drug synthesis, etc.)are invitedto join the team (lei_guanghua@csu.edu.cn).
