Congratulations to Mr Hengyu Wu, CEE PhD student supervised by Prof. Ling Jin, for being one of two winners of the 2026 Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Asia-Pacific Student Research Grant.
Mr Wu’s project, titled “ToxiCell: Knowing when to trust virtual-cell predictions for environmental chemicals”, asks a question that’s becoming more urgent as AI moves into toxicology. ToxiCell is a virtual-cell framework designed to predict how environmental chemicals may alter gene expression under different exposure conditions. This project will extend and validate ToxiCell using independent datasets and laboratory experiments, with particular emphasis on determining when its predictions are sufficiently reliable for interpretation. The work aims to support more scalable and evidence-informed assessment of data-poor environmental chemicals by improving chemical prioritisation and guiding targeted toxicological testing.
This highly competitive grant supports student-led research that advances environmental chemistry and toxicology forward across the society, while offering recipients valuable opportunities for professional development, scholarly collaboration, and impactful research outcomes.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Mr Wu on this remarkable achievement and look forward to his continued ground-breaking work towards a better living environment.
