Bio: Dr. Ping Xu is a renowned scientist specializing in proteomics and innovative drug development. He holds significant leadership roles in national research programs. He is Principal Investigator of National Center for Protein Science (NCPS), China, and Director of Proteomics and Innovative Drug Development Unit of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Xu is Chief Scientist for both of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) and the National Key R&D Program of China, as well as the Leader of the National Science and Technology Innovation Team.

Dr. Xu also contributes extensively to the scientific community. He is Vice President of Asia Oceania Human Proteome Organization (AOHUPO), and the President of Chinese Human Proteome Organization (CNHUPO). His work primarily focuses on the post-translational modifications of proteins and disease proteomics, making substantial impacts in these fields. He has published over 160 SCI papers as corresponding or first author in prestigious journals such as Cell, Gastroenterology, Molecular Cell, and Nature Communications. He also co-authored 2 books and contributed chapters to 4 books. He owns over 60 authorized patents and has 10 commercialized products from his own research, as well as 1 nationally approved gene-engineered drug on the market. 

Abstract: Next-generation risk assessment for environmental chemicals involves a weight of evidence framework integrating a suite of new approach methodologies based on points of departure obtained from in vitro assays.

Among existing new approach methodologies, the omic-based technologies are of particular importance based on the premise that any apical endpoint change indicative of impaired health must be underpinned by some alterations at the omics levels, including such as the transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, proteome, epigenome and genome. Transcriptomics assays especially plays a leading role by in providing relatively conservative points of departure in comparison with apical endpoints. However, it is unclear whether and how parameters measured using other omics techniques predict the cellular response to chemical perturbations, especially at exposure levels below the transcriptomically defined points of departure. Multi-omics coverage may provide additional sensitive or confirmative biomarkers to complement and reduce the uncertainty in safety decisions made using targeted and transcriptomics assays. We conducted multi-omics studies of compared changes in transcriptomics, proteomics and phosphoproteomics with varied types of compounds with multiple chemical concentrations and time points, to understand the sensitivity of the three omics techniques in response to chemically-induced changes in HepG2. We demonstrated that phosphoproteomics alterations occur not only earlier in time, but also at much more sensitive to lower concentrations than proteomics and transcriptomics, and hence are proximal to the very early effects induced by chemical exposure. The phosphoproteomics changes appear to maximum when the transcriptomics alterations begin to be initiated.