Haonan Lu
Academic title: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Clinical Medicine
HKU address: L7-47, Laboratory Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Pok Fu Lam
Tel: +852 39179367
HKU lab webpage link: https://obsgyn.med.hku.hk/en/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/haonan.lu12
CV link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jm8uq3sykT4g4PGFcpoIwKGY3iuv8xyq/view?usp=sharing
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=ZTRCrIIAAAAJ&hl=en
Education
BSc Biochemistry, University College London, 2009
MRes Cancer Biology, Imperial College London, 2012
PhD Clinical Medicine, Imperial College London, 2014
Employment
Research Associate, Imperial College London, 2019
Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong, 2024
Research Description
Our group's research interest focuses on epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), with a particular emphasis on ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) and high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC). EOC is the most prevalent and deadly gynecological malignancy, often diagnosed at an advanced stage due to its non-specific symptoms and the absence of reliable early detection markers. Therefore, our primary objective is to address the unmet needs in EOC by developing improved early detection strategies and more effective therapeutic agents.
In recent studies, we have employed integrated genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analyses to identify immune evasion mechanisms and a panel of membrane proteins that are enriched in EOC tumors. Specifically, we have generated monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that specifically target these membrane proteins. We aim to further engineer them into early detection and therapeutic agents for EOC. Our ongoing related projects are:
1. Bio-conjugation of payloads with new mechanism of action, i.e. immune-activating and imaging agents.
2. Development of immunotherapy agent via antibody engineering.
3. Discovery of mAbs specifically for OCCC.
Selected Publications
1. Haonan Lu, Georg Wengert, Hantao Lou, Reema Paudel, Naina Patel, Saral Desai, Bill Crum, Kristofer Linton-Reid, Mitchell Chen, Dongyang Li, Jacey Ip, Francesco Mauri, David J Pinato, Andrea Rockall, Susan J Copley, Sadaf Ghaem-Maghami, Eric O Aboagye. Tumour and local lymphoid tissue interaction determines prognosis in high grade serous ovarian cancer. 2023 Cell Reports Medicine
2. Lu Haonan, Mubarik Arshad, Andrew Thornton, Giacomo Avesani, Paula Cunnea, Ed Curry, Fahdi Kanavati, Jack Liang, Katherine Nixon, Sophie T Williams, Mona Ali Hassan, David D L Bowtell, Hani Gabra, Christina Fotopoulou, Andrea Rockall, and Eric O Aboagye. "A Mathematical-Descriptor of Tumor- Mesoscopic- Structure from Computed-Tomography Images Annotates Prognostic- and Molecular- Phenotypes of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer." Nature Communications (2019): 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08718-9.
3. Lu H, Cunnea P, Nixon K, Rinne N, Aboagye EO, Fotopoulou C. Discovery of a biomarker candidate for surgical stratification in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Br J Cancer. 2021 Mar;124(7):1286-1293. doi: 10.1038/s41416-020-01252-2. Epub 2021 Jan 21. PMID: 33473167; PMCID: PMC8007618.
4. Haonan Lu; Jacob George; Mohammed Eslam; Augusto Villanueva; Luigi Bolondi; Helen L. Reeves; Misti McCain; Edward Chambers; Caroline Ward; Dewi Sartika; Caroline Sands; Lynn Maslen; Matthew R. Lewis; Ramya Ramaswami; Rohini Sharma ; Discriminatory changes in circulating metabolites as a predictor of hepatocellular cancer in patients with MAFLD, Liver Cancer, 2022, 12(1): 19-31
5. Mitchell Chen, Haonan Lu, Susan J. Copley, Yidong Han, Andrew Logan, Patrizia Viola, David Pinato, Danielle Power, Eric O. Aboagye. Radiomics Can Predict Treatment Response and Pneumotoxicity from Programmed Cell Death-1 Pathway Inhibition in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 2023
Full publication list link:
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=ZTRCrIIAAAAJ&hl=en
Honours and Awards
Imperial College London S&C Seed Fund, 2023
Target Ovarian Cancer Translational project award, 2023
Air Theranostics project award, 2020
