Circular RNA vaccines encode tumor specific cryptic peptide antigens

Prof. Erwei Song obtained his MD and Ph.D. at Zhongshan Medical School, and was trained as a surgeon at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, SYSU. He received post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School in 2002 and became an instructor at the CBR Institute of Biomedical Research at Harvard in 2004. He is currently serving as Director of Health Science Center and President of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, SYSU.

 

As a clinical scientist, he is keen to address scientific questions derived from clinical practice. He is the pioneer of breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in China, a new surgical concept in contrast to mastectomy, which preserves breast microenvironment tissues for the activation of anti-tumor immunity. As a surgeon, Erwei has compiled the first Chinese Experts Guidelines for Breast-conserving Surgeries of Early Breast Cancer. His early publication “ RNA interference targeting Fas protects mice from fulminant hepatitis ” in Nature Medicine was the first to report that siRNA could be used therapeutically in whole animal disease models. This finding was selected as one of the “Top Ten breakthroughs of the year 2003” by Science , and has paved the foundation for clinical RNAi therapeutics.

 

In 2022, Trends in Immunology published a feature review of his proposal of “effector immune cell deployment (EICD)”, a revolutionary concept that depicts the most comprehensive approach to reflect cold and hot tumor immunotyping, which includes the priming, circulation, activity, trafficking, and fate of antitumor effector immune cells.

In over 30 years of immunological research, he has uncovered important subtypes of cancer-associated immune cells, receptors, juxtracrine and pathways that has resulted in a paradigm shift in the field of cancer immunotherapy. He discovered various new subtypes of cancer-associated immune cells and mesenchymal cells, and elaborated on their mechanisms, providing new insights for cancer immunotherapy. Erwei recently proposed the “ Theory of Tumor Ecosystem ”, which emphasizes on the importance of viewing cancer as a viable ecosystem where host internal environment is vital for cancer cell survival and growth.

 

On November, 2022, Erwei was awarded with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Medical Sciences for proposing and reinforcing “the Theory of Tumor Ecosystem”. His latest book on “Tumor Ecosystem: an ecological view of cancer growth and survival” was published by Springer Nature Publishing in June 2023.