澳大新語 • 2022 UMAGAZINE 25 57 學術研究 • ACADEMIC RESEARCH empirical drug design and synthesis of compounds by scientists, testing of compound activity by molecular biologists, and repeated optimisation and screening to identify clinical candidates. The entire process can often take a decade or two. However, less than 12 per cent of drugs in clinical trials receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Given the rich data available today, virtual drug screening using AI technologies is expected to replace 莊旭旭是澳大中華醫藥研究院博士生，研究課題集中於轉錄因子EB介導的自噬調控機制，以及通過化學或遺傳 學方法激活自噬對神經退行性疾病的干預。他在2016年於中國藥科大學取得碩士學位，曾以第一作者（包括共同 第一作者）身份在期刊《Nature Biomedical Engineering》和 《Cell Death & Disease》發表論文。 Zhuang Xuxu is a PhD student in the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) of UM. His research interests include the regulation of autophagy which is mediated by the transcription factor EB, and the intervention in neurodegenerative diseases by activating autophagy through chemical or genetic means. He received his master’s degree from China Pharmaceutical University in 2016. He has published two papers as the first author (or as a cofirst author) in journals including Nature Biomedical Engineering and Cell Death & Disease. 路嘉宏是澳大中華醫藥研究院、中藥質量研究國家重點實驗室（澳門大學）副教授和課程主任，主要研究興趣 是細胞自噬功能異常在神經退行性疾病中的作用和機制，以及篩選有抗神經退行性疾病治療潛力的中藥小 分子自噬調控劑，從而開發新藥。他已在《Nature Biomedical Engineering》、《Nature Communications》和 《Autophagy》等學術期刊發表100多篇論文，獲引用逾10,000次（Google Scholar數據），正申請多項專利。 Lu Jiahong is an associate professor and programme director in the ICMS and the State Key Laboratory for Quality Research in Chinese Medicine (University of Macau). His team's research interests include the role and mechanism of abnormal cell autophagy in neurodegenerative diseases, and the screening of small molecule autophagy modulators in Chinese medicinal products with therapeutic potential against neurodegenerative diseases for new drug development. Prof Lu has published over 100 papers in international journals, such as Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, and Autophagy, with over 10,000 citations (Google Scholar data). He is in the process of applying for a number of patents. traditional screening methods. This will not only speed up intermediate steps but will also significantly reduce R&D costs and increase the accuracy of screening. By combining AI-powered efficient and cost-effective screening in the first phase and traditional wet-lab validation on cells, nematodes, and mice in the second phase, we can improve the accuracy of screening and accelerate drug development. This approach can be applied not only to AD drug development but also to other areas of medical research. 研究員對GFP-mito-mCherry-Parkin HeLa細胞施用山奈酚和丹葉大黃素（20 uM），驗證這兩款線粒體自噬激活劑的功效。圖片顯示，施用這些自噬激活劑24小時 後，這兩組細胞內的線粒體（Mito-GFP）和溶酶體（LAMP1抗體）的共定位有所強化，比在溶劑對照組的同類細胞有更多線粒體自噬活動（以白色箭嘴標示）。 The researchers administered kaempferol and rhapontigenin (20 uM) to GFP-mito-mCherry-Parkin HeLa cells to validate their ability to induce mitophagy. The images show that 24 hours after administration of these two mitophagy inducers, co-localisation of mitochondria (Mito-GFP) and lysosomes (LAMP1 antibody) was enhanced in the two groups of cells, which had more mitophagy events (indicated by white arrows) than the same type of cells in the vehicle control group. 「學術研究」為投稿欄目，內容僅代表作者個人意見。 Articles in the Academic Research column were submitted by UM scholars. The views expressed are solely those of the author(s). 2021 UMAGAZINE 24
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