2014GU XIAOCHENG LECTURE

顾孝诚讲座

The Gu Xiaocheng lecture award was established by the Gu Xiaocheng Memorial Fund in2012. The lectureship recognizes young investigators showing promises to becomefuture leaders in life science research, especially those who work in China. Recruiting overseas scientists to return to China had been Professor GuXiaocheng’s long time passion. The awardee will receive an honorarium and anaward. The Gu Xiaocheng lecture will be presented in the annual Ray Wu Symposium series. Professor Gu Xiaocheng worked closely with Dr. Ray Wu in many aspects to promote scientific exchanges between China and the United States.This lectureship also commemorates the friendship between Dr. Ray Wu and Professor Gu Xiaocheng, and their shared legacy.

Professor Gu Xiaocheng was a professor in the Schoolof Life Sciences, Peking University, China.When she was the head of the Department of Biology (currently the School ofLife Sciences), Professor Gu established the Life Science Center in Peking Universityand headed the State Key Laboratory of Protein Engineering and Plant Genetic Engineering. She also led the effort to establish the State Key Laboratory ofBiomembrane and Membrane Bioengineering, and the Center for Bioinformatics(CBI) in Peking University. CBI is the national node of EMBnet. In later years, Professor Gu helped in building the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) and the Center for Pharmaceutical Information and Engineering Research in Peking University.

ProfessorGu Xiaocheng served as the chief coordinator representing China for the CUSBEA (China-United States Biology and Biochemistry Examinations and Applications) Program, in the 1980s which brought over 400 students from Chinato pursue Ph.D. degrees in the US,thus leading the way for Chinese students to study life sciences abroad and return to work in China.She organized a series of conferences that allowed CUSBEA students and others to continue their contacts.

The2014 Gu Xiaocheng lecture is awarded to Dr. Guangshuo Ouof Tsinghua University.

Dr.Guangshuo Ou received his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology fromthe University of California, Davis,in 2006. His Ph.D. research was in Dr. Jon Scholey’s lab (2001-2006). Supportedby the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Dr. Ou did his postdoctoralresearch with Dr. Ron Vale at the HHMI/University of California, San Francisco (UCSF, 2007~2011).His graduate and postdoctoral work in C. eleganson motor proteins,ciliogenesis, cell migration and asymmetric cell divisions made major impactson the field.  

Dr.Ou was recruited to Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,in 2011 throughthe program of“Young Thousand Talent Plan”initiated by the Chinese national government and later joined Tsinghua University in 2013. Hispublication record is impressive with a total of 32 publicationsin academic journals,especially those with high impact factors. His majorcontributions include the discovery of the biphasic intraflagellar transportand elucidation of underlying molecular mechanism; revealing novel function of polarizedmyosin in unequal-size daughters of asymmetric division; demonstration of thefinal fate of midbody after cell division and the improvement of fluorescencelive cell imaging technique with single cell resolution for visualization of C. elegans postembryonic neuroblastdevelopment. In addition, Dr. Ou has successfully adopted TALEN andCRISPR/Cas9-based techniques to generate conditional knockouts in somatic cellsrecently.

Dr. Ou is recognized as an intellectually talented youngscientist, whoknows how to raise important scientific questions and pursue the right answers. He is also an independent thinker and excellent decisionmaker. It is obvious that his lab is one of the most productive labs led by ayoung scientist returned from abroad, judging by any criteria.

The Gu Xiaocheng lectureship award committee recognizes Dr Ou’s academic achievements and hope this award will inspire more young scientists to perform excellent research work.