On February 20, 2025, the 2nd Global Expert Lecture of MED-X Research Institute was held in iHarbour. Dr. Li Ruifang, an assistant professor from Department of Clinical Epidemiology of Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands, was invited to visit the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) for academic exchanges. Professor Wang Yanan, Vice President of MED-X Research Institute and Director of Comprehensive Management Office, Professor Sun Xiaomin from Global Health Institute of XJTU, Professor Zhao Xiao from Immunometabolic Diseases Institute, Associate Professor Yang Chao, Zhang Tianxiang, Deputy Director of Comprehensive Management Office, teachers and students from MED-X Research Institute, and representatives from Department of Endocrinology and other departments attended the event, which was chaired by Director Wang Yanan from Comprehensive Management Office.
Assistant Professor Li Ruifang delivered a lecture entitled " Multi-omics Analysis of Metabolic Health: Driving Innovation in Precision Medicine". She highlighted obesity, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), type 2 diabetes mellitus and their association with cardiovascular diseases, and systematically investigated long-term effects of genes, lifestyles and environmental factors on health by using multi-omics technology such as proteomics, metabonomics and gut microbiome, aiming to provide scientific basis for early prediction, prevention and individualized treatment of metabolic diseases. In this lecture, she also illustrated how obesity and obesity-related metabolic diseases (such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, MASLD and cardiovascular diseases) have become a major challenge to global public health, illustrated the application of multi-omics technology in metabolic health research, and revealed the profound influence of nutritional, genetic and environmental factors upon metabolic diseases through the data of large international cooperative cohorts such as the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity (NEO), etc. She also shared exploratory research results related to MASLD in the past 13 years, and deeply unraveled the pathogenesis of MASLD and its relationship with obesity, diabetes mellitus and other diseases. After the lecture, Assistant Professor Li Ruifang conducted intense discussion and exchanges with all participating experts and students.
After academic exchange activities, Assistant Professor Li Ruifang was invited to visit Immunometabolic Diseases Institute and carried out in-depth communication on the research topic with the team members.
