Exclusive Interview with Dr. Chen Cuiying, Founder of Xiansida Biotechnology: Cancer Early Screening Enters the "Glyco Era"
Recently, the first Nobel Prize in the field of glycobiology was awarded. Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi from Stanford University in the United States won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of her work building on previous research to establish "bioorthogonal chemistry" and apply it to glycomics studies. In the award citation for her, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences stated: "She has taken click chemistry to a new dimension and begun using it to map cells. Her bioorthogonal reactions contribute to more targeted cancer treatments, as well as many other applications. Elegant, clever, novel, useful. Sometimes the simple answers are the best." Recently, Nanjing Innovation Investment Group invited Dr. Chen Cuiying, an internationally renowned glycobiologist and founder of Xiansida Biotechnology, to interpret glycomics as a brand-new translational medicine direction based on her long-term R&D experience and professional perspective.
Dr. Chen Cuiying currently serves as the Chairperson of Xiansida (Nanjing) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Previously, she held positions as Scientist, Senior Scientist, PI (Principal Investigator), and doctoral supervisor at Ghent University in Belgium and the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology. She has led EU research projects, China-Belgium collaborative research projects, and projects funded by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. She is also an editorial board member of international academic journals such as Biogerontology and World Journal of Hepatology, and a member or reviewer of many international academic institutions. Dr. Chen has won numerous awards, including the "FFMI Award for Latest Inventions in Tumor Markers" (Belgium) and the "Ellison Medical Foundation Award". She has published more than 50 papers in SCI-indexed journals. As a specially appointed overseas expert by the China Association for Science and Technology, she has also received honors such as "Jiangsu Provincial 'Dual Innovation' Talent" and "Recipient of the Jiangsu Provincial 'May 1st Labor Honor Medal'".
Could you talk about Dr. Bertozzi’s contributions to the field of glycobiology and the reasons for her Nobel Prize?
Dr. Bertozzi once said that she prefers to call herself a "glycobiologist" rather than a "chemist". During her doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Bertozzi focused on the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharide analogs. Oligosaccharides are actually oligosaccharides or polysaccharides formed by the polymerization of multiple monosaccharides; they are usually located on the surface of proteins and cells and play important roles in many biological processes, such as when viruses infect cells or activate the immune system. Dr. Bertozzi wanted to map the glycans that attract immune cells to lymph nodes, so she began to specifically develop new tools to image "probes" artificially introduced into sugar molecules. This exploration led to the birth of metabolic labeling, and Dr. Bertozzi ultimately pioneered the new concept of bioorthogonal chemical reactions—this is why she won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Could you introduce the new track of "applied glycomics"?
In a TED Talk at Stanford University, Dr. Bertozzi gave a simple and vivid explanation. She told us that the surface of cells is covered with glycans, glycolipids, and glycoprotein chains. Some of these sugar chains determine our blood types, while certain specific sugar chains can also be used by tumor cells to evade immune system surveillance. If we can identify and eliminate these "disguise" sugar chains on tumor cells, we can open up a new window for tumor treatment. Dr. Bertozzi’s statement is surprisingly similar to the "Glycan Bio-QR Code Hypothesis (BioQR)" that we independently proposed many years ago. The Glycan Bio-QR Code Hypothesis holds that the function of sugar molecules covering the cell surface is similar to that of health codes, travel codes, venue codes, WeChat QR codes, and official account QR codes commonly used in our lives today—namely, rapid identification. This is because specific glycan molecular structures carry signals related to species specificity, blood type specificity, physiological specificity, pathological specificity, and tissue specificity. The formation and rapid recognition of these signals are the molecular basis for the coordination and balance of the body, and also provide new methods for disease diagnosis and treatment.
Could you share your main work since returning to China to start a business?
From 2012 to 2015, we independently developed a glycomics detection and analysis technology platform. In 2015, we began to finalize product designs and conduct technical verification on clinical samples. Currently, Xiansida’s glycomics analysis technology platform can quickly and stably obtain glycan profile signals from trace amounts of serum. Using this technology, we can achieve rapid, high-throughput detection and auxiliary diagnosis of real-time glycomic signals for early liver cancer and related diseases. The liver cancer detection kit developed based on this platform received the "Innovative Medical Device Product" certification from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in 2018, and was included in the "Expert Consensus on Blood Markers for Clinical Early Screening of Hepatocellular Carcinoma" in 2021. At present, this product has completed clinical trials and is expected to be officially approved for marketing in 2023, potentially becoming the world’s first in vitro diagnostic product based on glycomics.
What clinical advantages do applied glycomics diagnostic products have?
Let’s take liver cancer diagnosis as an example. The traditional method mainly detects alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in serum. It is characterized by high specificity (80%~94%) but limited sensitivity (25%~65%), so its sensitivity and specificity for early liver cancer screening are not ideal. Xiansida’s product generates oligosaccharide fingerprint profiles based on the molecular structure and relative content of oligosaccharide chains on glycoproteins, and uses a computer software system for quantitative analysis to provide diagnostic results. Current clinical trial results show that the early liver cancer screening technology based on oligosaccharide chains achieves both sensitivity and specificity of over 85% for early liver cancer, which well meets clinical needs.
What are your prospects for the future of applied glycomics?
Glycan chains play important roles in both physiological and pathological processes. Changes in the structure and quantity of glycan chains are closely related to the occurrence and development of many diseases. Research over the past few decades has shown that serum glycomics has great potential in the diagnosis and prognosis of liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Dr. Bertozzi’s Nobel Prize win has drawn more attention from scientists and in vitro diagnostic practitioners to applied glycomics, which is of great significance. The new track of applied glycomics will inevitably bring new opportunities, and there is still huge room for development in this track. We hope to receive strong support from policies and capital, so that innovative technologies and products in the field of glycomic translational medicine—after undergoing clinical testing and verification—can quickly enter diagnostic and therapeutic applications and become an important part of precision medicine in the future.
Source: Chen Cuiying, Yan Peng’an from the Third Investment Department
Reviewer: Xue Yao
Publisher: You Yi
