2024 Ray Wu Prize Winner

Ayijiang Yisimayi

Background: Ms. Ayijiang received her bachelor degree from PKU in 2019, and entered the Ph.D. program in the laboratory of Dr. Xie Xiaoliang in PKU. Ayijiang’s research interest is in understanding of COVID-19 humoral immune responses. She has meticulously characterized the B cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 in nearly all immune backgrounds in China, including vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, those infected with different variants, and those with single or multiple infection.

Citation: By a unique experimental design to analyze BCR specificity coverage of the B cell repertoire from patients using single cell sequencing, it was discovered that there was a bias toward existing memory B cells in vaccination. clear understanding of the significance. Very knowledgeable about B cell development, but somewhat limited in various mechanisms of antibody neutralization of virus infection and immune imprinting. has carefully thought about future directions – both general directions and specific designs. Communication skills are excellent, quickly capture the core of the question. Confident, sincere; remains positive and upbeat when dealing with questions, challenges and requests for clarification.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Yizhou Zhuo

Background: Ms. Zhuo achieved her bachelor degree from Southeast University in 2017, and entered the Ph.D. program in Peking University in 2018. During her Ph.D. study, she has been working on the development and application of multi-color genetically-encoded fluorescent dopamine sensors under the supervision of Prof. Yulong Li. By using the combination of cutting-edge genetically fluorescent sensors and multiple imaging modalities, Yizhou developed new dopamine sensors and used them to investigate dopaminergic transmission process in an attempt to understand the diverse functions of dopamine system in brain. The new dopamine sensors that she developed allow neuroscientists to study the cortical dopamine transmission and dopamine-related neurochemical interaction in vivo more thoroughly.

Citation: Her key contribution is to enhance the sensitivity in detection of receptor responses by combining more brilliant fluorescent proteins with receptors selected from different animal species. demonstrated thoughtfulness and independence – specific engineering strategies are her own ideas. has broad knowledge and her own ideas – wants to focus on pain and addiction; going to Zhong lab (US) for postdoc; thought a lot about future career plans and what her unique advantages are (having training in tool development labs); wants to focus on circuit mapping for pain and addiction and developing light-induced actuators on the side. During the discussion, she demonstrated her abilities of independent thinking, and clear reasoning. Calm, thoughtful presentations; confident. Her English is superb.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Tao Qin

Background: Mr. Qin achieved his bachelor degree from Sichuan Agricultural University in 2017, and entered the Ph.D. program in Northwestern Polytechnical University in the same year. His advisor is Dr. Qiu Qiang. Mr. Qin is currently studying organ regeneration in mammals using periodically regenerating deer antlers as a model.He established a time-space cellular map of the entire cycle of antler regeneration, systematically describing the cellular and molecular mechanisms of antler regeneration and rapid growth; identifying a unique group of stem cells in mammals, it was found that this cell group exhibits strong self-renewal and bone repair abilities. This study provides a new understanding of mammalian regeneration and offers new research directions for regenerative medicine.

Citation: He has a good grasp of the research subject, including the history of progress, the significance, the experimental system and technical aspects. He can cover topics of both immunology and development. Very clear on the key roadblocks of the research project. Uniquely developed the culture of the stem cells from the antler. Visionarily pick out the key questions of organ regeneration. Exceptionally knowledgeable in development and regeneration. excellent understanding of the big picture direction; clear thinking; passionate about this line of research. Has a long term interest in regeneration, aim at expanding into medical research. He is persuasive, and makes strong impression when speaking. quick yet thoughtful response to questions.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Xiaoying Zhang

Background: Ms. Zhang received her bachelor degree from Soochow University in 2018, and then she join the laboratory of Dr. Yue Rui in Tongji University in 2020. Her PhD work mainly focused on stem cell aging and rejuvenation. She and her colleagues found that the bone marrow microenvironment becomes harder after aging, and they used this characteristic to construct a soft bone marrow microenvironment in vitro, allowing aging hematopoietic stem cells to be rejuvenated in the system and exhibit stronger lymphocyte differentiation ability. Her research findings not only utilized biomimetic principles to achieve in vitro remodeling of bone marrow microenvironment to reverse HSC aging, but also revealed the key regulatory role of matrix stiffness changes on bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment and HSC aging.

Citation: The student was involved in developing a novel approach to find out the impact of mechanic force on HSC aging. Her work on the new application of AMF imaging of the bone sections is hard to do, and creative to construct a 3D image of the bone structure. demonstrated clear unique contributions to the project; convincingly clear description of the most challenging part of the project (AFM). She is experimentally skillful and showed to have independent ideas. She can touch upon a number of other topics, and has the will to explore broad research topics. She knows quite a bit of different mechanisms of action in HSC development. Clear thinking of using the experimental system of the postdoc lab and integrating her own expertise on microenvironment. She is confident, and likes to move up in research roles, and expand into other areas. postdoc lined up (HSC aging).

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Di Sang

Background: Mr. Sang earned his bachelor degree at Wuhan University in 2018, and he was admitted into NIBS-Peking Union Medical College joint program to pursue his Ph.D. degree in the same year. He is engaged in research on the mutual regulatory mechanisms between biological clock, sleep, and immunity. Di’s research revealed that sleep deprivation elevates prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) levels in the brain, and disrupting the PGD2/DP1 axis alleviates sleep-deprivation-induced inflammation, emphasizing PGD2’s central role in driving pathological consequences from the nervous system to the immune system.

Citation: The discovery of the PGD2 effect due to lack of sleep is complete. His discussion of the mechanism of action and the molecular signaling pathway is in depth. He has independent ideas and plans experiments carefully. He fully understands the limits of the current studies and could answer questions from different angles, knowing the differences in different mechanisms. He already found the direction for his next step, a postdoc in MIT to work with primates, and has thought about how to get funding for his future research. has his own critical thinking – revisiting “creativity” model. He is still in search of a practical research direction for his future career. Clear, logical presentation and communication; passionate.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Yufan Dong

Background: Ms. Dong received her BS from Central South University in 2020, and entered the Ph.D. program in the laboratory of Dr. Liu Danqian in Institute of Neuoscience, CAS in 2022 . Her doctoral study focus on investigating cortical dynamics during REM sleep in mice. Yufan find retrosplenial cortexdominated cortical waves during the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and on the two sub-stages of REM sleep.

Citation: The student discusses the study with accurate statements, including thorough details of experimental techniques employed. She was able to independently take a new approach to probe brain activities in learning and creativity. Her ideas and reasoning are very clear, creative. has her own thinking; made the key observation which led to the main hypothesis and novel finding of the published work, Would like to explore neuronal interactions in the brain with more advanced experimental methods, including computational modeling (AI). She acknowledges that they need to map out the molecular mechanism for their observed phenomena, but has not yet had any experience in molecular studies. She is passionate about the research, very curious about how the neural network operates. On the spot responses are creative and quick, very much to the point. She is very confident, and is eager to expand the horizon of her future work. Has clear thinking about her future – getting training in a molecular cell biology in a non-neuroscience lab; combine this expertise in a neuroscience focus of her own lab. She may need to acquire more broad knowledge in related areas, but given the stage of her career, she appears to have a upward trajectory.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Jialing Lin

Background: Ms. Lin received her BS from WenzhouUniversity in 2018, and entered the Doctoral Joint Training Program in Shanghai Tech University/CAS center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, where her studies under Dr. Chen Xiaoya in 2018. Through precise experimental design and analysis, Jialing has successfully revealed the mechanism of enantioselective synthesis of gossypol in cotton and created a new toxicity-depleted cotton germplasm through genome editing. This research has led to outstanding contribution to the chiral control mechanism of (±)-gossypol.

Citation: Systematically identified the mechanism for selective synthesis of gossypol stereoisomers, which generates a new strain of cotton by genetic depleting the enzymatic synthesis of the toxic isomer. Her discussion of the experimental approaches and analyses of the results is logical, clear and answers the questions directly to the point. clear understanding of the significance. Has her own ideas to screen for other key enzymatic regulatory proteins by similar methodology. Also suggests to modify the inducing protein for alternative target enzymes. need to further broaden the knowledge base especially related to the direction that she is interested in – e.g., computational protein design. Says only what she knows, and at the same time knows what is correct. calm, clear presentation; remain upbeat. Shows a very pleasant personality.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Zhengyu Jing

Background: Mr. Jing achieved his bachelor degree from Henan Polytechnic University in 2018, and entered the Ph.D program in the laboratory of Dr. Chi Tian in Shanghai Tech University in the same year. During doctoral studies, he focused on developing gene decoding technology. Zhengyu has developed a groundbreaking mouse fast decoding technology iMAP (inducible mosaic animal for perturbation) that integrates CRISPER& Cre/LoxP technology. Using only one mouse strain to investigate the basic functions of 100 genes in various tissues and cells in the body, the decoding speed has been increased by 100 times (compared to traditional decoding technology).

Citation: The beautiful work was completed by combination of multiple methods to insert a large number of genes in mice, which allows in vivo screening of their biological functions. Overall pretty thoughtful explanation and discussions of his work. He proposed to analyze gene-gene interactions using the new mouse model, but may not have admitted the limitations of the system or their approaches. His view of other approaches is also somewhat biased; big picture description is a bit lacking. He has some good thinking about future directions; has a good range of knowledge on both computational and experimental aspects. When seriously challenged, he stood calmly and addressed the questions with confidence. Clear descriptions of the project; can communicate effectively.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Wenhao Xu 

Background: Mr. Xu achieved his bachelor degree from Huzhong Agricultural University in 2016, and entered the Ph.D program in the laboratory of Dr. Song Wei in Wuhan University in 2020. Wenhao has been utilizing both Drosophila and mouse models to illuminate the mechanisms underlying cancer cachexia. He identified a novel antidiuretic hormone in Drosophila, ITPF, which is secreted by intestinal tumors and directly disrupts kidney functions that leads to ascites accumulation and hyperglycemia. He further dissected the mechanisms of ITPF action, pinpointing its downstream tissues (renal tubular stellate cells), receptor (GPCR TkR99D), and downstream cGMP pathway. Additionally, he has demonstrated the conserved nature of this anti-diuretic pathway in higher organisms, including mice, and successfully mitigated tumor-related kidney damage in these models by blocking the anti-diuretic pathway with small-molecule inhibitors.

Citation: The student was responsible for identification of this new ligand, ITPF. His study was systematic, with careful planning and independent thinking. They realize that the receptor is a unique GPCR, and he is actively involved in pursuing the mapping of this new pathway, because the well-known G-protein complexes appeared to be unrelated to this GPCR. but the molecular mechanisms may not be his focus. In addition, he has a clear idea how to explore the role of this ligand in other disease mechanisms. He is a highly motivated student with broad knowledge in related fields. He answered all questions directly and down to the point. He has a strong desire to expand his scope of research, and will do a postdoc in caner immunotherapy.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Zhifeng Zhao

Background: Mr. Zhao received his Bachelor’s degree from Central South University 2017,and entered the Ph.D. program in Tsinghua University in the same year. His advisor is Dr. Dai Qionghai.He is mainly engaged in the research of computational imaging in biomedical applications.Zhifeng first implemented two-photon digital adaptive optics technology, improving the resolution and signal-to-back ratio of imaging in deep tissues, creating conditions for high-resolution imaging research on the dynamic behavior and mutual functions of deep tissue cells.

Citation: He is exceptional in the in depth knowledge of new imaging technologies. In this line of work, he must be excellent in design of optics, computational analyses, ad assembly of different technical components. He is keen on looking for unique applications of his technology in biological studies, which may require long duration, fast image capturing and deeper penetration. Currently, he is working on increasing the area of imaging. He has very good ideas of different technological advances and has a clear mind in discussion of the science and future work. Good thinking of future plan; has general plan and ideas; can benefit from more in-depth thinking – for technology aspect, how to distinguish from PI; for neuroscience and immunology, how to select a system to be closely integrated into his own lab in addition to collaborating broadly.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

Shulin Li

Background: Mr. Li received his bachelor degree from Shandong Normal University of in 2019, and entered the Ph.D program in the laboratory of Dr. Ge Liang in Tsinghua University. Shulin has demonstrated exceptional research skills in studying the molecular mechanisms and biological functions of autophagy. His work on the ERGIC-ERES membrane contact regulating autophagosome formation, addressing crucial scientific questions about the origin and assembly of autophagosome membranes.

Citation: The understanding of his work is solid. Identified several good approaches to study the pathway. His ideas about structural biology are refreshing, and recognizes the importance to correlate structural discoveries with functional studies in relevant model systems. His training in cryoEM/ET is above average, well read. Easy to talk with, strong will to cover more broad topics with a clear focus, especially in situ analyses. Has his own style, overall effective communication. Relaxed; not afraid of admitting the mistake (atomic resolution vs atomic level); has a sense of humor.

This prize is sponsored by the Xu Family Charitable Foundation.

RWMF members at the 2023 Ray Wu Prize award ceremony