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Featuring talks by

Prof. Yanhui Xu

Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, China

Topic: Structural insights into preinitiation complex assembly on chromatin

Prof. Alexey Amunts

Stockholm University, Sweden

Topic: How genes become machines in mitochondria

Chaired by

Prof. Yigong Shi

Westlake University, China

Topic: Mechanism of RNA splicing by the spliceosome

About the Session

This session will delve into the intricate molecular mechanisms that underlie the Central Dogma of molecular biology. Session talks will shed light on the critical role of RNA splicing in generating protein diversity and regulating gene expression, how 3D structure of a human cell’s genome being transcribed, the dynamic interactions between DNA, regulatory factors, and transcriptional machinery, and how molecular processes contribute to mitochondrial function and cellular metabolism. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore cutting-edge research findings and atomic-level details of RNA splicing, understand the structural intricacies of preinitiation complex assembly on chromatin, and explore the fascinating world of gene expression within mitochondria. It promises to be an engaging and enlightening session that will deepen our understanding of these fundamental molecular processes and their significance in biology and medicine.

About the Speakers

Yigong Shi, Ph.D., mainly uses biochemical and biophysical methods to study the molecular mechanism of cell apoptosis, the structure, and function of important membrane proteins, and intracellular biological macromolecules. He analyzes the key complex structure of eukaryotic messenger RNA splicing bodies revealing molecule layer mechanisms. Shi is a recipient of the Searle Scholar Award, the Rita Allen Scholar Award, the Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award (2003), the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics (2010), the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist Award of the Qiushi Foundation (2010), the CC Tan Life Science Achievement Award (2010), the Gregori Aminoff Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2014), the Wu Jieping-Paul Janssen Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science Award (2014), the "You Bring Charm to the World Award" (2015-2016), the Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Ho-Leung-Ho-Lee Foundation (2016), the Future Science Prize of the Life Sciences Prize (2017), the achievement award of the VCANBIO Award for Biosciences and Medicine (2017), and Tan Kah Kee Science Awards(2020). He was also nominated as a Foreign Associate of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2013.

Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, Ph.D., is the Director of Changping Laboratory, the Lee Shau-kee Professor and Dean of Faculty of Sciences at Peking University. He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Peking University in 1984, and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from University of California at San Diego in 1990. He became the first tenured professor in 1998 and the first endowed Professor in 2009 at Harvard University among Chinese scholars since China's reform and opening up. He relocated to Peking University in 2018.

Xie has been a pioneer of single-molecule biophysical chemistry, coherent Raman scattering microscopy and single-cell genomics. The single-cell whole genome amplification methods that his group invented has to date benefited over 4,000 families with monogenic diseases by successfully preventing the passing of disease-causing mutations to their offspring. In fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, Xie's team has identified a broad-spectrum neutralizing antibody against all SARS-CoV-2 variants, which has been licensed to Sinovac and is undergoing clinical trials.

Xie received numerous international awards, most notably Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry of American Chemical Society and Founders Award of Biophysical Society.

Yanhui Xu, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in Zihe Rao lab, where he studied the mechanism of virus fusion. He went to Princeton University as a postdoctoral scholar in Yigong Shi lab, where he studied the structural basis for assembly of protein phosphatase 2A holoenzyme. He moved to Fudan University in 2008 as a principal investigator. His lab was investigating the structure and function of transcription regulation by using biochemistry and cryo-electron microscopy.

Alexey Amunts, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm. He studied structural biology at the Tel Aviv University and specialized in bioenergetics. Following his postdoctoral studies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology with Venki Ramakrishnan on cryo-EM studies of a mitoribosome that became known as the "Resolution Revolution," he established an independent group in Stockholm. The group is funded by the ERC and studies mitochondrial protein synthesis and energy production at the molecular and cellular level, and examines how these fundamental processes are affected by natural selection and diseases. Alexey Amunts is EMBO Young Investigator, and the recipient of the Cancer Foundation Junior Investigator Award.