On the afternoon of October 20th, 2017, professor Kun-Liang Guan from University of California and professor Wanjin Hong from the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) were invited to give academic reports. The reports were chaired by Prof. Canhua Huang and Prof. Changlong Li respectively.

Lecture Scene

Professor Kun-Liang Guan made an academic lecture titled“the Hippo pathway in cell growth, tissue homeostasis, and cancer”. His lecture focused on Hippo pathway，the downstream signal molecular YAP/TAZ has the role of proto-oncogene, however the upstream signal molecularLATS1/2 and MST1/2 play adverse function. Interestingly, tumor cell cannot survival after knocked out LATS1/2

With a detailed study, the tumor’s growth was inhibited by knocking out LATS1/2 as was increased. In addition, professor Guan shared the discovery process of MAPK4s and the mechanism of uveal melanoma caused by mutation of Gq/11gene.His research reveals Hippo pathway plays the significant role in tumor immunogenicity regulation, and presented a new concept involved targeting LATS1/2 in cancer immunotherapy.

Prof. Guan on the Lecture

Professor Hong made an academic lecture titled“Sorting nexins in membrane trafficking”, during the speech , His speech involved some relevant proteins that have the effect on intracellular vesicle transport, mainly focused on SNXs’s role in endocytosis, protein separation, cell signaling transduction, membrane trafficking, membrane remodeling and organelle movement. In addition, professor Hong highlighted the member of SNXs family—SNX27, he pointed that SNX27 plays important roles on synapse formation and downs syndrome occurrences.

Prof. Hong on the Lecture

Discussions on the Lecture

CV of Professor Kun-Liang Guan:

Kun-Liang Guan is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center at UCSD. He received his B.S. Degree from Hangzhou University in Zhejiang China, and subsequently completed his Ph.D at Purdue University with Henry Weiner. His post-doctoral work in Jack Dixon’s lab lead to multiple discoveries, including dual specific phosphatases. Kun-Liang has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the genius award). Guan's research focuses on cancer biology and the intracellular signal transduction in cell growth regulation. Guan has made seminal contributions in the fields of protein tyrosine phosphatase, Mitogen-Activated Protein (MAP) kinase, and the mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) pathways. Guan and his team have published numerous influential papers in, many publications, such as Cell, Nature and Science.

CV of Professor Wanjin Hong:

Professor Wanjin Hong is a famous cell biologist. He have worked on cell and molecular biology for many years and have published several papers on renowned academic journals such as Nature .He received his PhD from the State University of New York (SUNY Buffalo), and was a postdoctoral fellow there before he joined the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) in Singapore as a principal investigator in 1989. He was the recipient of National Science Award in 1999 in Singapore. Presently, he is a Professor and Executive Director of IMCB. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Bioscience Reports and is on the editorial board of TRAFFIC.