2016 Awardees at Ceremony Yu Hou Background: Ms. Hou received her bachelor degree from China Agricultural University in 2012, and is conducting her Ph.D. research in the laboratory of Dr.Tang Fuchou in Peking University. Yu’s research interest focuses on stem cells and epigenetics. She was involved in two main research projects. In her first project, she performed genome analyses of single human oocytes using multiple annealing and looping based amplification cycle (MALBAC) sequencing technology. She and coworkers demonstrated the key biological features of human oocyte meiosis. Moreover, MALBAC-based pre-implantation genomic screening (PGS) in in vitro fertilization (IVF) enables accurate and cost-effective selection of viable fertilized eggs for embryo transfer. In the second project, she developed the sequencing analysis technique for single cell multi groups, and revealed the internal heterogeneity of cancer tissues from multiple perspectives. Citation: Ms. Hou is very sharp. She has excellent experimental skills, and the curiosity/willingness to learn all aspects of the project. She is very capable in combining different methods together. Her presentation was clear. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Gaowen Liu Background: She conducts evolutionary biology research at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore. The Ph.D. project she worked on was a huge systems biology project involving a massive amount of experiments of different nature. As a main driver of the project, she needed significant independence to conduct experiments not only in operation but also in designing and finding the most effective ways to generate and analyze numerous large datasets, which required a lot of thinking, planning, innovation, and organizational skills. She explained very well the scientific significance of her project in redefining the concept of gene essentiality, cellular evolvability, and its broader implications in cancer development and drug resistance. Citation: Her project had multiple components including yeast genetics, bioinformatics, computer programming, statistics, cell biology, and imaging. From her presentation and response to questions, it was apparent that she had a very good understanding of all the different aspects of the large complex project. It was also apparent that she not only worked hard to get the unbelievable amount of experiments done but also made significant intellectual contributions which, as her supervisor commented, made the project successful. For unknown reasons, she was not informed to give a presentation for the interview. So the interview panel asked her to use her recent Cell paper to describe what she had done and plans to do in future. Even without preparation, she was able to present with confidence and high clarity about the questions they asked, their experimental design, data analysis, interpretation of results, and future directions. She has a good command of English (she was educated in a foreign language school in China) and verbal skills are outstanding. She exhibited strong motivation. She worked on a very ambitious project involving analysis of over a thousand genes, dissection of 15000 tetrads, ran 15000 PCRs, and analyzed several thousands of FACS profiles. And she did all these in three years and published her work in Cell! This unbelievable achievement reflects her strong motivation, dedication, hard working, perseverance, organization, and an extraordinary ability to extract meaning from the vast amount of data. She was able to understand and ask most questions very well, reflecting her good understanding of her field of research. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Daisong Wang Background: Mr. Wang received his bachelor degree from Shandong University in 2012, and entered the Ph.D. program in the laboratory of Dr. Zeng Yi at Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, CAS in 2014. His research project is to characterize the role of a newly identified Wnt-target gene, Procr, in the mouse mammary gland. He identified a specific mammary stem cell marker, Procr, and proved that Procr+ cells are at the top of the hierarchy, giving rise to all differentiated cell types in the adult mammary epithelium. Citation: Mr. Wang did very nice work in developing the unique approach to successfully select the stem cells. He is able to design experiments independently, clearly not just following PI’s guidance. He showed broad knowledge of the stem cell research field, but a bit unwilling to explore new things. He also discussed his own ideas of future studies and his independent speculations of how cell conversions may occur. He demonstrated his general interests in stem cell research. He is interested in taking a multiplex approach to study cell conversions. His answers are clear and concise. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Lei Zhu Background: Mr. Zhu recieved his bachelor degree from Second Military Medical University in 2011, and entered the Ph.D. program in Shanghai Changzheng Hospital in 2013. His advisor is Dr. Chen Aimin. He engaged in the clinical and experimental studies of repairing peripheral nerve injuries. He invented a new operation strategy called S1 nerve root transfer. Citation: Being a clinician, Mr. Zhu clearly knows his own interest and invented the totally novel approach to repair the nerve after injury. His approach is based on solid scientific reasoning, and thorough experiments with different animal models from mice to monkeys. The strategy is briliiant. He is both knowledgeable in clinical medicine and basic science. He keeps looking for new challenges to broaden his knowledge and applications to treat patients.He is very confident. Give sharp answers. He has a big vision and wants to develop more new approaches to treat more patients. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Biao Ma Background: Mr.Ma received his BS from Tianjin Normal University in 2011. He began his Ph.D. study under the direction of Dr. Chen Quan at Nankai University in 2013. Biao worked on the molecular regulation of Hippo pathway in response to hypoxia. He identified that Lats2, a critical kinase for hippo pathway, is the substrate of Siah2. Continuing his work, he demonstrated that Zyxin is required for down regulation of TGF-band hypoxia-induced Lats2 and deactivation of Hippo signaling in MDA-MB-231 cells. Citation: Mr. Ma did very solid work. He has independent ideas, and understands the relationship between tumor biology and development. He can discuss questions about broad fields. He knows the limits of some experiments, and pinpointed the key problem. He answered questions accurately. He showed potentials. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Sai Luo Background: Ms. Luo obtained her B.S in biological sciences in Xiamen University in 2011. She entered the joint graduate program (PTN) between Peking-Tsinghua Universities and NIBS in 2011, and joined Dr. Shen Xiaohua’s lab in 2012. Sai mainly focuses on long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) mediated transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Her work revealed that positive regulation of nearby transcription by divergent lncRNAs could be a general theme of mammalian gene regulation. Divergent lncRNAs as ‘cis-regulators’ tend to participate in similar biological processes as their protein neighbors. Citation: Ms. Luo did very nice work. She knows the significance of each project and the details of her experiments, even the limit of her methods of study. She has a good knowledge base, and was interested in learning more about RNA structure and methods to study the structure. She responded to questions clearly, and showed confidence. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Fan Zhou Background: Mr. Zhou received his bachelor degree from Datong University in 2010, and entered the Ph.D. program in the laboratory of Dr. Liu Bing in the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in 2013. Fan has always been interested in the development of hematopoietic stem cells. He was successful in single-cell functional purification of embryonic hematopoietic stem cells(HSCs). He then worked with Dr. Tang Fuchou and successfully analyzed the transcriptome characteristics of five related cell populations during the formation of HSCs at the single-cell level. Citation: Mr. Zhou did very nice work. He discovers new cell markers. He can tell a good story about his work, and careful about his experiments. He knows the details of most related fields. During the interview, his presentation is good, and he showed high enthusiasm about his research. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Haibin Wang Background: Mr. Wang entered the PhD program in Second Military Medical University, where he studies under Dr. Yuan Wen since 2013. He study on the mechanism of non-coding RNA in degenerative spinal disease. He and collaborators ' work is to understand the generation, regulation and function of circular RNA in mannals. They demonstrated the function of the flanking intronic complementary sequences in exon circularization and the generation of complex alternative circularization products. Citation: Mr. Wang did nice work, willing to learn/explore new things. He spent quite a bit of time in a basic research lab to work on this project even though his job is a physician. He demonstrated sound understanding of the science behind his project and worked very hard to get these achievements. He has his own ideas on how to identify the functions of the novel circular RNAs. He can relate the results from basic research to clinical applications. His speaks fluently and confidently. Besides his clinic training, he also loves basic research and would like to persue his careeer in basic research. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Xing Zhang Background: Ms. Zhang entered the PhD program in Peking University, where her studies under Dr. Guo, Hongwei in 2011. Her research interest is on phytohormone signaling transduction. She works on investigating the development of apical hook in Arabidopsis thaliana. Her work showed that Jasmonates-activated transcription factor MYC2 represses EIN3 function by promoting EIN3 degradation and inhibiting its DNA-binding ability. Citation: Ms. Zhang did very nice work. She systematically identified the relevant genes. She has a good knowledge base. She could present her project clearly, step-by-step, and has a fairly good vision about science. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. Yulong Niu Background: Mr. Niu received his bachelor degree from Sichuan University in 2010, and entered the Ph.D. program in the laboratory of Dr. Yang Yi in Sichuan University in 2012.The overall aim of his studies has been to develop novel bioinformatics tools for studying protein-protein interactions. He then developed a software for analysis of correlations and similarities among the phylogenetic profiles of the human proteome to predict likelihood of functional and structural interactions between any given human protein pairs. He found that the ATP synthase complex has evolved from multiple functionally distinct modules. Citation: Mr. Niu was able to map potential protein interactions by informatics analyses. Some of the conclusions have been verified by experimental results from collaborators. He could to expand the discussion beyond his lab project. He is very calm, and answer questions clearly. This prize is sponsored by Taikang Asset Management (HongKong) Company Limited and Taikang Community (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd.
2014 Awardees at Ceremony Di Zhao Background: Ms. Zhao received her bachelor degree fromZhejiang University in 2009, and is conducting her Ph.D. research in thelaboratory of Dr. Guan Kunliang at Fudan University. Her major project was todetermine the regulation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and its alteration incancer.1) She shows that acetylation of one particular isoform, LDHA,contributes to pancreatic cancer development. 2) She discovered that North ‐ LDHA regulation is changed in a subsetof breast cancer cell lines. Citation: Ms. Zhao shows clearunderstanding of her project. She was able to follow where the data lead andmade significant discoveries. She is very knowledgeable about proteinmodification and regulation of cancerous gene expression. It is very pleasantand it is easy to communicate with her. She is confident and aims high.Overall, all the judges were impressed and considered her as an outstandinggraduate student. This prize is sponsored by Drs. JianminChen and Xiaoqiao Jiang. Kun Li Background:Ms. Li entered the Ph.D. program in Institute of Neuroscience, ShanghaiInstitutes for Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Science in 2008. Heradvisor is Dr.Hu Hailan. She focuses on examining the molecular mechanismunderlying habenular hyperactivity in depression. She and collaboratorsidentified a synaptic protein that modulates glutamatergic transmission in thelateral hebenula. They performed electrophysiological recording and behaviroltests to show that this synaptic protein (a form ofcalcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase) regulates glutamate receptor insertioninto postsynaptic membrane of hebenula neuron, leading to changes in the outputof these neurons in controlling depression-related circuits and thedepression-like behaviors. Citation:She found an important regulator related to depression. She knows broad aspectsof neuroscience. She touched upon a number of different advanced techniques andmade strong combine different techniques to solve complicated problems. She offersan excellent expression in discussion. She has the determination to reach highgoals. This prize issponsored by the Yu and Wei Foundation. Yang Li Background: Mr. Li entered the PhD program at XiamenUniversity in 2010. His advisor is Dr.Lin Shengcai. He and his colleaguesdiscovered a novel signaling pathway that integrates protein phosphorylationand acetylation into the regulation of serum-deprivation-induced autophagy ， an acute intracellular catabolismprocess that maintains energy and metabolic substrates even in the presence ofample nutrients. Citation: Mr.Li is brigt, thoughtful andvery confident. He did a systematic search of the downsteam modification, andwas able to produce specific antibodies. The broad coverage of all aspectsleads to his new discoveries. He is knowlegeable outside his field. He knowsthe work of other labs and other fields. His presentation was very good. He ishighly interactive, and likes to collaborate. He has a broad vision. This prize issponsored by Crown Bioscience Inc. Xiangxi Wang Background: Mr. Wang began his Ph.D. study under the direction of Dr. Rao Ziheat in the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. Hisproject mainly focuseson the uncoating mechanisms of Picornavirus and drugdesign based on viral structures. He has 1) solved several high resolutioncrystal structures of EV71 virus in distinct forms, 2) successfully designed afew leading compounds of high affinity toward the virus, which provide guidesto develop potential herapeutic drugs, and 3) solved crystal structures ofSCARB2 (an EV71 receptor) at neutral and acidic conditions, which shed light onthe molecular basis of SCARB2-mediated invasion of EV71. Citation:Mr. Wang has independent and innovative ideas in structural biology. He has advanced technical skills, andthinking in long terms. His work is outstanding. He is basically responsiblefor the two major papers. He is part of the leadership of the research team. Heknows a lot about virus studies, virus entry and antiviral studies as well asthe limitation in viral structural biology. He shows determination. He knowswhat he wants to do, and willing to meet tough challenges. This prize is sponsored by ChineseBiological Investigators Society. Jiayu Chen Background: Mr.Chen received his bachelor degree from Shandong University in 2010, and isconducting his Ph.D. research in the laboratory of Dr. Li Chuanyun at BeijngUniversity. Mr. Chen works on three genomics. By taking the dual-advantages ofrhesus macaque as a model animal and a species closely related to human, as thefirst author, he found that more than 80% of the de novo-created humanprotein-coding genes encoded long non-coding RNAs in rhesus macaque, withsimilar transcript structure and correlated tissue expression profile. Citation:He understands the field well, and was able to develop novel datasets andmethods to analyse de novo genes in primates. He is aware of broad medicalproblems but only addressed the other areas briefly. His presentation is clear,and his answers are sharp. He is ambitionus and will keep doing comparativeevolution biology. Zhikai Wang Background: Mr. Wang enteredthe Ph.D. program in University of Science Technology of China in 2008.His advisor is Dr. Yao Xuebiao. His research work mainly focused on themolecular basis of microtubule dynamics and its regulation. He and hiscollaborators showed that dynamic regulation of EB1 acetylation orchestratesproper mitosis. Citation:Mr. Wang works very hard and made a highly significant discovery. He was veryclear about his own research, and described the project step by step. He isvery thoughtful, has good knowledge about cell division. He made an excellentexpression. He answers question firmly and clearly. He is persistent in hisstudies, and could follow the new trend of the field. This prize is sponsored by Promega Corporation Inc. Yanbo Zhang Background: Mr. Zhang received his BSfrom Henan University in 2008, and enteredthe PhD program in Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (IBCB), Shanghai Institutesfor Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he studies underDr.Wang Hongyan. His research focus is on immunology. His work showed thatVEGFR-3 and VEGF-C negatively regulate TLR4 signaling in macrophages andprevent host from septic shock, which might have broad ramifications. Citation: Mr.Zhang is thoughtful and motivated. He is familiar with the field andliterature. He has independently designed the macrophage studies. He is awareof other topics, especially tummor immunology. He can talk clearly withconfidence. He addressed questions with precision. Jie Li Background:Mr. Li entered the Ph.D. program in Shanghai Jiaotong University of Medicine in2007. His advisor is Dr. Chen Guoqiang. His research work mainly focused on themolecular mechanisms underlying sumoylation of HIF-1α and its roles in cancerprogression. He reported that Cbx4 governs HIF-1α to potentiate angiogenesis ofhepatocellular carcinoma by its SUMO E3 ligase activity. Citation: Mr. Liis persistent and highy motivated. He works hard and spends 7 years to reachthe final goal. He understood his work thoroughly, and was able to identify animpotant pathway. He has broad knowledge of transcription regulation. He wasable to communicate in English and experss himself very well. He wants to solveimportant problems. Zhe Ying Background: Mr. Ying received his BSfrom Zhongshan University in 2009, and is conducting his Ph.D. study in thelaboratory of Dr. Li Mengfeng at Zhongshan University. Zhe’s research focusedon mechanisms governing stemness and invasiveness of cancer cells. Hesuccessfully identified AGK-JAK2 interaction as a mechanism by which JAK2 isconstitutively activated independent of mutation of JH2 domain in esophagealsquamous carcinoma. He has also found that silencing of miR-204 as ashared mechanism between glioma and neuron stem cells, which guarantees thehighly expression of stemness governing and cell migration promoting genes. Citation: Mr.Ying was able to extend his current studies to another field. He is familiarwith the related field, but his knowledge about other broad topics is limited.His verbal expression is good. He is enthusiastic about science, and has aclear vision on what he likes to do in the future. Jingjing Zheng Background: Ms. Zheng entered her Ph.D.program in Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for BiologicalScience, Chinese Academy of Science in 2007. Her advisor is Dr. Yu Xiang. Shefocuses on studing the effect sensory experience on cortical excitatoryneurons. She found that early unimodal sensory deprivation, either throughwhisker-deprivation or dark-rearing, significantly reduced excitatory synaptictransmission layer II/III pyramidal neurons of the correspondence sensorycortex, and crossmodally in other sensory cortices. Citation: Ms.Zheng is mature. She can independently design experiments to support herhypothesis. She completed a difficult project, which represents a new discoveryabout a novel molecular mechanism. She is reasonable familiar with the field. Mr.Zheng wants to dedicate to study autism. She cares about the health status ofthe large population. Jian Shu Background: Mr. Shu entered the PhD programin Peking University, where he studies under Dr. Hongkui Deng in 2009. Theproject he has been studying is to find the substitutes for the most importpluripotency factor Oct4 in the process of induction of iPSCs. He designed asystem for genome-wide screening of Oct4 substitutes, and discovered acombination of two small molecules to enable the successful screening. Heproved that pluripotency factors might direct lineage specification, and thatlineage specifiers might in turn facilitate induction of pluripotency. Citation: Mr.Shu shows the passion incurrent research work. He is responsible for modifying the screening method soit is possible to identify more important factors. He is very good in bigpicture of biology, and has quite innovation minds. He can answer all ofquestions clearly with fluent English.
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007, Fine Last two years this season, I was putting my best leg forward to prepare for the graduation permission exam in January 2006, which was a fight for me. The school I applied for is the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which charges free for the students. However, because of that, there was a large amount of candidates applied for it, which meant that I had a lot of rivals. Therefore I compared the preparative of that exam as a fight, a fight with the other applier and also a fight with myself. In order to achieve victory in that fight, I spent about half a year in the classroom and reading room for the course tested. There were four course I should prepare, the College Mathematics (including Calculus, Linear Algebra and Programming, Probability and Statistics), the Politics (including Marxist Political Economics, Marxist Philosophy, Introduction to Mao Zedong Thoughts, Introduction to Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Important Thought of Three Represents, Contemporary International Economy and Politics), College English, the Theory of Economics (including the Western Economics and the Political Economics), within which the College Mathematics brought the most pressure for me. It took me more than half of the time to do exercises for that college. Those days, I seldom got up later than 6 oclock in the morning, and always went back to the dormitory later than 10 oclock in the evening. You can image how hard I work for that exam. As you are considered, everyone around me believed I would get a good result as well. However, the god played a joke with me. I was totally different on the day I attended the exam I prepared for half a year, for I suffered from insomnia last night and even didnt get asleep for a minutes. The noisy near and in my dormitory and my nervosity completely disrupted me. So I entered the exam room in an extremely bad condition and I was so tired that even fallen asleep during those four two-hours. Therefore, the bad result of the exams is not surprise. Several days ago, I determined to take part in the fight I was beaten two years ago. Comparing with the last time, two more things I have for the preparative, they are two pieces of advice: first, be in relaxed temple and make sure to go to asleep before 11 oclock every evening; second, be clear about all the knowledge points. It is the second fight and another challenge for me; hope I can be the winner.
标签: Winner
