Sun Hye Shin

I am very honoured to receive the ERS-APSR Young Investigator Award at the virtual ERS International Congress 2021. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the support from the APSR and ERS.

On behalf of my colleagues, I presented our work entitled “Exhausted T lymphocytes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: single-cell analysis of human lung tissue” at the e-Poster session. We prospectively recruited 22 COPD patients and 10 non-COPD patients, who were undergoing surgical resection for lung cancer. Single-cell RNA sequencing was performed to determine the heterogeneity of CD8+ T cell between non-COPD patients and COPD patients with GOLD grade 1 and 2. Gene-expression profiles of approximately 130 thousand cells were clustered and annotated by established marker genes. We next explored the dynamic immune states and cell transitions in CD8+ T cells by inferring the state trajectories, and could finally reach an exhausted state. We observed a greater ratio of progenitor-like exhausted T cells to total exhausted T cells, in GOLD grade 2 patients in comparison with non-COPD patients and COPD patients with GOLD grade 1. Given the greater ratio of progenitor-like exhausted T cells, those cells might be reverted from exhaustions to exert effector function upon treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Despite the congress was held online due to the pandemic situation, I had a chance to network with other researchers/clinicians during the discussion session, and also attended various sessions which were truly up-to-date and state-of-the-art. I again appreciate the APSR and ERS for this precious opportunity.