Jianzhi Zeng

Background: Mr. Zeng earned his bachelor degree from Hunan University in 2015 and is conducting his PhD research in the laboratory of Dr. Yulong Li in Peking University. Jianzhi chose Drosophila to test a series of characteristics of dopamine probe. He mastered the two-photon imaging technology of Drosophila melanogaster in vivo, combined with electrophysiology, optogenetics, pharmacology and a variety of physiological stimuli to depict the specificity, sensitivity and spatial-temporal resolution of the probe, and realized the detection of dopamine release level at the single cell level. Taking advantage of a palette of new probes, he found a serotonin-mediated neural mechanism that can modulate the time sensing for Pavlovian associative learning.

Citation: He is one of the intellectual drivers of the current project, building up the new field for the lab with independent efforts, and has accomplished a number of exciting projects. He is both technically competent and be able to formulate hypotheses and to design critical experiments. At the same time, he also pointed out the limitation for memory study by using Drosophila as a model. Has strong communication skills. Very confident. Explain the background well. Can tell a story with ease. Very good presenter. Thought process is very enthusiastic, with potential for high innovation and creativity.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Baolin Guo

Background: Mr. Guo is conducting his Ph.D. research in the laboratory of Dr. Shengxi Wu in Institute of Neuroscience in the Air Force Medical University. His research interest is on the neural basis of abnormal social behaviors in animal models of psychiatric disorders, especially the autism spectrum disorder. They found that the structural and functional impairments in the anterior cingulate cortex gave rise to the social deficits in a Shank3 mutant mouse model.

Citation: Mr. Guo is a key player in this study and made significant independent contributions to the design and analyses of the research project. He clearly recognized the significance in autism research and could put his study in the context of the field. His comprehension of multiple gene contributions to the overall outcome of the complete neutral network reflects his level of scientific maturity. He was able to directly relate his basic research to clinical observations. He showed familiarity with the literature in the field and clear thinking. Very passionate about research and has a clear outlook of his future research path. His statements are logical and down-to-the point, and answer questions with good manner.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Wanling Peng

Background: Ms. Wanling Peng received her B.S. degree in life sciences and biotechnology at Wuhan University in 2016. Then she joined the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Science, for her Ph.D. study in Dr. Min Xu’s lab. Her research was about the neural mechanisms of sleep-wake regulation. This work provided new insights into the mechanisms of the regulation of sleep homeostasis–the high neural activity during wakefulness contributes to the increase in sleep pressure by stimulating the release of adenosine.

Citation: She presented exciting work; has clear understanding of the pathway related to the topic and the broad field. Her explanations are in details and informative. She provided specific answers to the critical questions. Have ideas to apply findings in clinical applications. Showed very broad interests in neuroscience with thoughtful ideas, can discuss her study with regard to circadian rhythm. Expression and communication skills are very good. Show fast response, logic, and curiosity. Has an excellent potential.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Shuai Jin

Background: Mr. Jin got his BS degree from Shandong Agricultural University in 2016. His mentor is Dr. Caixia Gao. Shuai solved the complexity of sequence analysis of a large number of heterogeneous cells by resequencing the whole genome of rice plants and bioinformatics analysis of the variation within the genome. He found for the first time that the base editing system had the effect of off target at the individual level. In 2020, he developed two cytosine base editors without random miss effects.

Citation: He is creative, independent and highly productive; demonstrated in depth knowledge of the field. He made quite a bit of novel discoveries in gene editing, particularly useful for plant engineering. His knowledge is broad, and has clear thinking about future directions; has his own assessment of the frontiers. He appears to be ambitious, and plans to design new gene editing tools in the future.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Guang Yang

Background: Mr. Yang got his BS degree from Tongji University in 2017, and is conducting his Ph.D program in the laboratory of Dr. Cizhong Jiang in the same year. The first piece of work he carried out was to elucidate how TSA boosts the development of somatic cell nuclear transferred (SCNT) embryos. The second of work by Guang was to analyze the dynamics of H3K9ac modification during mouse early embryo development.

Citation: His project involves precise epigenetic reprograming the somatic genome by pioneer use of a novel transcription factor, which was identified by application of sophisticated bioinformatic analyses in comparisons of ChIP-seq data from cells at different developmental stages. He has a good grasp of both the big picture and detailed experimental design. He understands the fundamental biology even though he works on bioinformatics. His presentation and answers are clear and logical. He has well-organized ideas about his future research extending to epigenetic gene regulation in neuroscience, and plans to continue his postdoc training abroad.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Pengze Yan

Background: Mr. Yan received his bachelor’s degree from Shandong Agricultural University in 2016 and joined Dr. Guanghui Liu’s lab at Institute of Zoology, CAS in the same year. During his Ph.D studies, he drew a comprehensive aging roadmap of cynomolgus monkey arteries at the single-cell resolution and revealed that loss of FOXO3 is a key driver for arterial aging. Based on this result, he generated the FOXO3-activated vascular cells, which provided a more effective and safer biomaterial for cell therapies.

Citation: He is very productive, and has in-depth understanding of his project. He is creative and thinks about the science with a clear mind. His answers were thoughtful. He has broad interests in aging, stem cells and knows how to ask the important questions. He laid out his own ideas to control vascular aging and identify novel biomarkers of aging from blood and organs. His presentation was well done with poise. His communication skills are impressive. He has a clear plan for future research, likes to do a postdoc at Stanford to learn new technologies and to monitor aging of different organs. He showed a very good potential for an independent research career.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Bo Liu

Background: Mr. Liu received a bachelor’s degree from China Agricultural University and join Dr. Hai Qi’s lab in 2015. Bo’s work mainly focused on how affinity-based selection during Germinal Center (GC) reaction is efficiently accomplished, a prerequisite to better understand how antibody affinity matures. His work uncovers a new principle of the spatiotemporal orchestration of affinity-based selection by finding the mechanism that disproportionately focuses the help from TFH cells onto affinity-increasing B cells.

Citation: He has detailed knowledge of B-cell development in the germinal center, and is highly independent, supported by his own idea on repulsive guidance of cell migration. Realize the gaps between what’s known in mouse versus humans. Has some ideas to use ex vivo systems or humanize mouse models to study human T/B cell differentiation. He is very passionate and has a clear and excited future plan, good communication skills.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Chunjie Guo

Background: Ms. Guo earned her bachelor degree from Yunnan University in 2015 and is conducting her PhD research in the laboratory of Dr. Lingling Chen in CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science. Taking human embryonic stem cells and mouse embryonic stem cells as research objects, she found the subcellular localization of long non coding RNA in human and mouse embryonic stem cells by nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA isolation and transcriptome sequencing.

Citation: Her work is interesting and she clearly stated the novelty of her study and specific significance. She has knowledge of the broad field and independent creativity. She is enthusiastic about her research. Showed very good communication skill. Can explain ideas clearly. She is confident, highly motivated and has a high potential. Future plans include postdoc abroad.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Nan Wang

Background: Mr. Wang got his Bachelor’s degree at Sichuan University in 2016. He joined the Ph.D. Program in Dr. Zihe Rao’s lab sponsored by IBP, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2019 to 2021.Nan’s research interest mainly focuses on structural investigations of flexible complexes and virions, ranging from 50k Da proteins to ~300nm particles, aiming to push the resolution limit.

Citation: He was able to develop an improved method to correlate and average flexible regions in protein structure determination by cryoEM techniques. He primarily focused on the technical aspect of the project, which is also critical in advancing life science research. Many biophysical methods are pivotal to studies of protein structure, including X-ray crystallography, NMR, mass spectrometry, and cryoEM. He is very enthusiastic about the work.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

Jie Wang

Background: Ms. Wang received her BS from Northeast Normal University in 2014, and entered the PhD program in 2016. Her mentor is Dr. Zheng-Yi Xu.  The project Jie has been engaged in for her Ph.D. thesis was about how epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation and histone modifications, regulate abiotic stress tolerance in plants, especially on the salinity stress and the drought stress responses in rice. Her major findings unravels the mechanism of how DNA methylation in the promoter region enhancing gene transcription, and reveals the transcriptional regulation of OsHKT1;5 gene expression in rice.

Citation: She has a clear understanding of the channel functions and the relationship to stress tolerance. She understands the study thoroughly and independently proposes an unprecedented idea that DNA methylation might serve as a promoter rather than a suppressor for gene transcription. She has a strong persona and is determined to continue her work in northeast China, and will apply her knowledge to develop better crop seeds. She presented herself well in words and in style.

This prize is sponsored by The Yu and Wei Foundation.

RWMF members at the Ray Wu Symposium 2021