2018 GU XIAOCHENG LECTURE

顾孝诚讲座

The 2018 GU XIAOCHENG LECTURE is awarded to Dr. Nan Tang of National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS), Beijing.

The Gu Xiaocheng lecture award was established by the Gu Xiaocheng Memorial Fund in 2012. The lectureship recognizes young investigators showing promises to become future leaders in life science research, especially those who work in China.

Dr. Nan Tang received her Doctor of Medicine degree from Xian Jiao Tong University, China in 1993, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology from University of California, San Diego, USA in 2005. Her postdoctoral training was with Dr. Gail Martin at University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) from 2006 to 2012. She joined National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS), Beijing, in 2012 and quickly established herself with major discoveries that provided new answers to several long-standing questions in the field.

In NIBS, Dr.Tang’s lab developed a technically very challenging method by establishing both in vivo and ex vivo embryonic lung live imaging systems, and used them to continuously monitor the cellular processes of alveolar progenitor cells during alveolar epithelial cell differentiation for up to 14 days, which covers the entire late embryonic development process in mice. They found that mechanical forces generated by the inhalation of amniotic fluids and a local FGF10/FGFR2 signaling circuit can control the fate of these unique cells. This finding explained why inhalation of amniotic fluid is so important for the proper development of lung functions in new born babies.

She also has exciting unpublished results that may offer a potential therapeutic solution for a major lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The new finding has attracted interests from major healthcare investment groups and pharmaceutic companies.

Dr. Tang is not only a brilliant young scientist who has achieved envious scientific accomplishments in her relatively short career, but also a beloved mentor to her students. She is respected as one of the best lecturers.

She will present her latest work in the 10th Ray Wu Symposium at Institute of

Biophysics, CAS on October 14, 2017.