Bio: Sijin Liu, a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, has been selected for the “Hundred Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the “Ten Thousand Talent Program” for Leading Talents. He has served as the chief scientist for the National 973 Project and has hosted the National Basic Research Program of China, the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Special Funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, among others. His research focuses on environmental pollutants and their health effects. He has published more than 200 SCI papers, including Cell Metabolism, PNAS, Science Advances, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Angew Chem Int Ed Engl, Advanced Materials, JCI, Blood, Cancer Research, etc.

Abstract: The health hazards of fine airborne particulate pollution are significant, contributing to 8% of the global disease burden and resulting in 7.8 million deaths. A major challenge is understanding the respiratory and systemic health risks induced by fine particulates, as well as their mechanisms of action—especially regarding tissue distribution, transport pathways, carriers, and how they cross biological barriers. The research team systematically investigated the "fine airborne particles–lung injury–extrapulmonary transport" axis, focusing on the response characteristics of pulmonary cells, the carriers and processes involved in particle translocation from the lungs to extrapulmonary sites, and the resulting damaging effects. Key findings include: 1) The identification of a novel immune cell subset in the lungs—pulmonary megakaryocytes—that specifically respond to fine particulates. 2) The discovery of a new particulate transport mechanism mediated by the "megakaryocyte-platelet" axis in the lungs, which facilitates the translocation of fine particles from pulmonary to extrapulmonary sites. 3) The elucidation of a novel injury mechanism caused by fine particle exposure—dysregulation of lactate and iron metabolism. 4)The demonstration that fine particles can carry influenza viruses, enabling viral infection of host cells through non-receptor-dependent pathways. This process promotes the budding and release of progeny viruses from parent viruses internalized via particulate carriers, alters the respiratory tract distribution of influenza viruses, facilitates extrapulmonary viral transmission, and enhances the pathogenicity of fine particulate-bound influenza viruses.