About the Lab
We study cell-cell communications and disease mechanisms to discover disease-selective drug targets and develop novel disease-targeting therapies. Our research interests range from ocular vascular diseases and neurovascular crosstalk to cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological diseases and cancer.
We developed the first technology of ligandomics to globally profile cell-wide ligands, which play an important role in cell-cell communication. Our comparative ligandomics is the only technology to systematically map disease-selective ligands as drug targets to develop novel ligand-guided disease-targeting therapies. By using this technology, we discovered secretogranin III (Scg3) as a neuron-derived disease-selective angiogenic factor.
We generated Scg3-neutralizing antibody with high efficacy and safety to treat multiple neovascular diseases, including diabetic retinopathy, neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinopathy of prematurity, in animal models.
We are developing this new therapy toward clinical translation as the next-generation disease-targeting anti-angiogenic therapy with multiple indications.