Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About DMM
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contact
    • Contact DMM
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Disease Models & Mechanisms
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Advanced search

RSS   Twitter   Facebook   YouTube

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About DMM
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contact
    • Contact DMM
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
EDITORIAL
DMM Prize 2018 winner: Wenqing Zhou
Monica J. Justice (Editor-in-Chief)
Disease Models & Mechanisms 2019 12: dmm039586 doi: 10.1242/dmm.039586 Published 26 March 2019
Monica J. Justice
Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, and Department of Molecular Genetics, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Monica J. Justice
  • For correspondence: monica.justice@sickkids.ca
  • Article
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM) is delighted to announce that the winner of the DMM Prize 2018 is Wenqing Zhou, for her paper entitled ‘Neutrophil-specific knockout demonstrates a role for mitochondria in regulating neutrophil motility in zebrafish’ (Zhou et al., 2018a). The prize of $1000 is awarded to the first author of the paper that is judged by the journal's editors to be the most outstanding contribution to the journal that year. To be considered for the prize, the first author must be a student or a postdoc of no more than 5 years standing.

Embedded Image

Wenqing Zhou

Outstanding contribution

Wenqing Zhou grew up in a small town in South Central China and received her bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Central South University, China. In the third year of undergraduate study, she joined Dr Xueduan Liu's lab, where she learned to isolate bacterial strains from the environment and utilize those strains to increase the metal extraction efficiency from mineral. During that time, she was deeply attracted by those ‘tiny but magic microbes’.

After graduation, in 2011, Wenqing joined the master's program at the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and began to study the antibiotic resistance of pathogens with the guidance of Dr Jie Feng. Streptococcus pneumoniae, one of the most common pathogens in the respiratory tract, is widely resistant to macrolide antibiotics because of the dissemination of transposon Tn2010, which carries two different macrolide-resistance genes. She identified that transformation is the predominant way to transfer Tn2010 between S. pneumoniae, and that the acquisition of Tn2010 has a negligible fitness cost, which may explain the widespread distribution of the transposon (Zhou et al., 2014).

The experience in Dr Feng's lab made her understand what research is, and she really enjoyed the process, so she decided to pursue an academic career. After graduation, she began her PhD under the direction of Dr Qing Deng at Purdue University, IN, USA, in 2014. In Dr Deng's lab, her first project was to determine the role of microRNA in the response of neutrophils to inflammation. She identified that miR-223 in epithelial cells regulates neutrophilic inflammation. miR-223 is known as a myeloid-enriched microRNA, and its expression is highest in neutrophils. However, she found that the augmented neutrophilic inflammation in miR-223-deficient zebrafish is mainly due to the over-activation of NF-κB in the basal layer of the surface epithelium. The intrinsic regulation of NF-κB in epithelial cells by miR-223 was further confirmed in human cells. This work provided a direct connection between miR-223 and the canonical NF-κB pathway, and highlighted an overlooked relevance of epithelial cells in dampening neutrophil activation (Zhou et al., 2018b).

Neutrophils are fast-moving cells and primarily rely on glycolysis for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) availability. Whether mitochondria regulate neutrophil motility in vivo remained obscure. Wenqing's second project focused on mitochondria and neutrophil migration. She optimized the original method developed by Dr Len Zon's group (Ablain et al., 2015) and established a gateway system harboring the CRISPR/Cas9 elements for tissue-specific knockout to disrupt mitochondrial function genetically in zebrafish (Zhou et al., 2018a). With this system, she found that neutrophil-specific disruption of mitochondrial DNA polymerase, polg, significantly reduces the velocity of neutrophil interstitial migration. In addition, inhibiting the mitochondrial electron transport chain or the enzymes that reduce mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) also inhibited neutrophil motility. Furthermore, the research demonstrated that the reduced cell motility resulting from neutrophil-specific knockout of sod1 was rescued by sod1 mRNA overexpression or by treating with scavengers of ROS. Together, their work established the first in vivo evidence that mitochondria regulate neutrophil motility, and provided insights into immune deficiency seen in patients with primary mitochondrial disorders. Technically, the group has used the tissue-specific-knockout approach to discover the function of genes, especially those that are developmentally essential, in neutrophils. This is the first successful example of using this technique to make scientific discoveries. They have further demonstrated the specificity of the knockout by mRNA and chemical rescue (Zhou et al., 2018a).

Box 1. DMM Prize 2018 shortlist

Winner:

Neutrophil-specific knockout demonstrates a role for mitochondria in regulating neutrophil motility in zebrafish.

Wenqing Zhou, Lingyan Cao, Jacob Jeffries, Xiaoguang Zhu, Christopher J. Staiger and Qing Deng.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm033027. doi:10.1242/dmm.033027.

Also shortlisted by our Editor team:

Bone marrow transplantation corrects haemolytic anaemia in a novel ENU mutagenesis mouse model of TPI deficiency.

Ashlee J. Conway, Fiona C. Brown, Elinor J. Hortle, Gaetan Burgio, Simon J. Foote, Craig J. Morton, Stephen M. Jane and David J. Curtis.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm034678. doi:10.1242/dmm.034678.

Drosophila melanogaster as a function-based high-throughput screening model for antinephrolithiasis agents in kidney stone patients.

Sohrab N. Ali, Thamara K. Dayarathna, Aymon N. Ali, Tijani Osumah, Mohamed Ahmed, Tyler T. Cooper, Nicholas E. Power, Dongxing Zhang, Dajung Kim, Rachel Kim, Andre St. Amant, Jinqiang Hou, Thomas Tailly, Jun Yang, Len Luyt, Paul A. Spagnuolo, Jeremy P. Burton, Hassan Razvi and Hon S. Leong.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm035873. doi:10.1242/dmm.035873.

A novel rabbit model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy generated by CRISPR/Cas9.

Tingting Sui, Yeh Siang Lau, Di Liu, Tingjun Liu, Li Xu, Yandi Gao, Liangxue Lai, Zhanjun Li, Renzhi Han.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm032201. doi:10.1242/dmm.032201.

The class I myosin MYO1D binds to lipid and protects against colitis.

William McAlpine, Kuan-wen Wang, Jin Huk Choi, Miguel San Miguel, Sarah Grace McAlpine, Jamie Russell, Sara Ludwig, Xiaohong Li, Miao Tang, Xiaoming Zhan, Mihwa Choi, Tao Wang, Chun Hui Bu, Anne R. Murray, Eva Marie Y. Moresco, Emre E. Turer and Bruce Beutler.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm035923. doi:10.1242/dmm.035923.

Nmnat mitigates sensory dysfunction in a Drosophila model of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Jennifer M. Brazill, Beverley Cruz, Yi Zhu and R. Grace Zhai.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm032938. doi:10.1242/dmm.032938.

CRISPR-Cas9 human gene replacement and phenomic characterization in Caenorhabditis elegans to understand the functional conservation of human genes and decipher variants of uncertain significance.

Troy A. McDiarmid, Vinci Au, Aaron D. Loewen, Joseph Liang, Kota Mizumoto, Donald G. Moerman and Catharine H. Rankin.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm036517. doi:10.1242/dmm.036517.

Spliceosomal components protect embryonic neurons from R-loop-mediated DNA damage and apoptosis.

Shelly Sorrells, Sara Nik, Mattie Casey, Rosannah C. Cameron, Harold Truong, Cristhian Toruno, Michelle Gulfo, Albert Lowe, Cicely Jette, Rodney A. Stewart and Teresa V. Bowman.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm031583. doi:10.1242/dmm.031583.

Cancer modeling by transgene electroporation in adult zebrafish (TEAZ).

Scott J. Callahan, Stephanie Tepan, Yan M. Zhang, Helen Lindsay, Alexa Burger, Nathaniel R. Campbell, Isabella S. Kim, Travis J. Hollmann, Lorenz Studer, Christian Mosimann and Richard M. White.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm034561. doi:10.1242/dmm.034561.

Cooperation of loss of NKX3.1 and inflammation in prostate cancer initiation.

Clémentine Le Magnen, Renu K. Virk, Aditya Dutta, Jaime Yeji Kim, Sukanya Panja, Zoila A. Lopez-Bujanda, Andrea Califano, Charles G. Drake, Antonina Mitrofanova and Cory Abate-Shen.

Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm035139. doi:10.1242/dmm.035139.

Currently, Wenqing is characterizing the stable zebrafish lines that she generated with neutrophil-specific knockout, and trying to provide a full understanding of the pathway regulated by mitochondria in neutrophil migration. She will finish the work in the spring of 2019 and start to look for a postdoctoral position.

  • © 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.

References

  1. ↵
    1. Ablain, J.,
    2. Durand, E. M.,
    3. Yang, S.,
    4. Zhou, Y. and
    5. Zon, L. I.
    (2015). A CRISPR/Cas9 vector system for tissue-specific gene disruption in zebrafish. Dev. Cell 32, 756-764. doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2015.01.032
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  2. ↵
    1. Zhou, W.,
    2. Yao, K.,
    3. Zhang, G.,
    4. Yang, Y.,
    5. Li, Y.,
    6. Lv, Y. and
    7. Feng, J.
    (2014). Mechanism for transfer of transposon Tn2010 carrying macrolide resistance genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae and its effects on genome evolution. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 69, 1470-1473. doi:10.1093/jac/dku019
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  3. ↵
    1. Zhou, W.,
    2. Cao, L.,
    3. Jeffries, J.,
    4. Zhu, X.,
    5. Staiger, C. J. and
    6. Deng, Q.
    (2018a). Neutrophil-specific knockout demonstrates a role for mitochondria in regulating neutrophil motility in zebrafish. Dis. Model. Mech. 11, dmm033027. doi:10.1242/dmm.033027
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
    1. Zhou, W.,
    2. Pal, A. S.,
    3. Hsu, A. Y.-H.,
    4. Gurol, T.,
    5. Zhu, X.,
    6. Wirbisky-Hershberger, S. E.,
    7. Freeman, J. L.,
    8. Kasinski, A. L. and
    9. Deng, Q.
    (2018b). MicroRNA-223 suppresses the canonical NF-kB pathway in basal keratinocytes to dampen neutrophilic inflammation. Cell Rep. 22, 1810-1823. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.01.058
    OpenUrlCrossRef
View Abstract
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

RSSRSS

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Disease Models & Mechanisms.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
DMM Prize 2018 winner: Wenqing Zhou
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Disease Models & Mechanisms
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Disease Models & Mechanisms web site.
Share
EDITORIAL
DMM Prize 2018 winner: Wenqing Zhou
Monica J. Justice (Editor-in-Chief)
Disease Models & Mechanisms 2019 12: dmm039586 doi: 10.1242/dmm.039586 Published 26 March 2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
EDITORIAL
DMM Prize 2018 winner: Wenqing Zhou
Monica J. Justice (Editor-in-Chief)
Disease Models & Mechanisms 2019 12: dmm039586 doi: 10.1242/dmm.039586 Published 26 March 2019

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • Outstanding contribution
    • References
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Drosophila melanogaster: a simple system for understanding complexity
  • Disease Models & Mechanisms in the Age of Big Data
Show more EDITORIAL

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Development

Journal of Cell Science

Journal of Experimental Biology

Biology Open

Advertisement

First person — Andrew Scott Emmert and Eri Iwasawa

Eri and Andrew

In an interview, first authors Andrew Scott Emmert and Eri Iwasawa discuss their new paper on impaired CSF flow and neural differentiation in a rat model of hydrocephalus, their research process and plans for the future.


Editor’s choice — Drug repurposing screening for rare diseases

Wild-type worms and pmm-2 F125L/F125L worms

Ethan Perlstein and colleagues present two back-to-back articles. In the first, they describe how the diabetic neuropathy drug palrestat can ameliorate PMM2-CDG. The second identifies the FDA-approved aripiprazole as a clinical candidate for treating NGLY1 deficiency.


Resource — SILAC-based quantitative proteomics using mass spectrometry quantifies endoplasmic reticulum stress in whole HeLa cells

Read Murgia et al.’s new resource article describing a SILAC-based proteomics approach to quantify the unfolded protein response.


Review Commons launches

We're excited to be an affiliate journal for Review Commons, the ASAPbio/EMBO platform for high-quality journal-independent peer-review in the life sciences, which went live on 09 December.

 

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Subject collections
  • Interviews
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About DMM
  • Editors and Board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists

For Authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal Info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact DMM
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2019   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992