Is it right to use 'X is a new research topic of interest to our lab' to indicate that the lab has not done research on 'X'?

Is it right to use 'X is a new research topic of interest to our lab' to say that the lab has not done research on X before?

I want to convey:

1.The lab only focused on research topic 'Y'(e.g. proteins) in the past. In the future, 'Y' will still be the focus, even though 'X' will be the secondary focus.

2.The lab lacked established biological experimental conditions for conducting research on topic 'X' (e.g. miRNA) two years ago, since topic X belongs to different field. I was the first student to conduct research on topic X.

I am a student, not the PI. I want to describe the experimental conditions when I began the project in PS for PhD application. I started from scratch and encountered many difficulties.

(I hope my edits would make the problem more clear, thank you! )

Besides, Is there a more polite way to say 'our lab'? I mean the lab I belong to.