Dr. Afu Fu received his B.Sc. in 2007 from the College of Life Sciences of Sichuan University in China. From 2007 to 2010 he pursued his M.Sc. in Chemical Biology in the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy at Sichuan University, where he isolated small molecules from herbal extracts that showed tumor growth- and metastases-inhibiting characteristics.

 

In his Ph.D. research in the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, from 2011 to 2016, he focused on identifying key proteins in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that allow these cells to survive in the bloodstream and spread metastases. He identified the antioxidant enzyme MnSOD as an important cancer marker that supports cancer cell survival in circulation and mediate doxorubicin resistance of metastasized breast cancer cells. At the end of 2017, Dr. Fu joined Nobel Laureate Distinguished Professor Aaron Ciechanover's group at the Technion to further broaden and deepen his knowledge of the molecular biology of cancer.

 

His postdoctoral research focuses on protein degradation of oncogenes in nuclear bodies and its potential role in cancer development and metastasis. Dr. Fu was trained in and now commands a broad array of methods in cancer research, including cell and molecular biology, apoptosis, proteomics, use of various cancer models, as well as drug discovery. These will no doubt help him in future to initiate his career as an independent scientist.