Ray Wu Award

At each biannual meeting, CBIS awards outstanding scientists or people who have made outstanding contribution to biological science development in China. The award is named after Dr. Ray Wu to commemorate his dedication to Chinese Biologists.

This year, CBIS' Ray Wu Awardees are Dr. Yang Shi and Dr. Yi Zhang. Both have made critical contributions to our understanding of gene expression.

Yang (left) graduated from Shanghai Medical University and received his PhD from New York University and had postdoctoral training with Thomas Shenk at Princeton before becoming setting up his own laboratory at Harvard Medical School. He is now Merton     Bernfield Professor in the Department Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He has made three major contributions.

1. Using C. elegans, he identified a critical role for the histone acetylase CBP/p300 in differentiation and demonstrated a dynamic, antagonistic interaction between acetylases and deacetylases in controlling cell fate and tissue development.

2. The Shi lab developed a DNA vector-based RNAi technology that is now widely used for studies of gene function in mammals.

3. The discovery of the first histone lysine-specific demethylase LSD1.

Dr. Yi Zhang graduated from Beijing Agricultural University and received PhD from Florida State University in Tallahassee. His postdoctoral training was with Danny Reinberg at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Zhang is currently HHMI Investigator and Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His major contributions are:

1. Yi has systematically identified and characterized a new class of histone modifying enzymes, the histone methyltransferases.

2. He identified a family of JmjC domain-containing histone demethylases.

3. Discovery of a genome demethylation process that involves radical SAM domain-containing proteins. Unfortunately, Dr. Yi Zhang was unable to attend the meeting due to prearranged event. His colleague Dr. Yue Xiong received the plaque on his behalf.

CBIS Young Investigator award

CBIS Young Investigator award is presented bi-annually to young and mid-career Biomedical Investigators for their important contributions to Science. This year's awardee is Dr. Xian Zhong Xu, Assistant Professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Xian Zhong (left) received his PH.D from the Johns Hopkins University and postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology. Starting from his graduate thesis work, Xian Zhong followed the great tradition of Seymore Benzer, to pursue gene-cell-behavior research. He made excellent contribution to the understanding of TRP channel and its multiple cellular functions. After starting his laboratory at University of Michigan, he continues to investigate the molecular and cellular basis of behavior, primarily in C. elegans system. His work led to discoveries of posture sensing and novel mechanism of light sensing in C. elegans. Xian Zhong's work has been well recognized, as evidenced by many awards, including Pew Scholar award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Helen Hay Whitney fellowship, and a Harold Weintraub Graduate Student award.