Lectures times & venues

Time: 16 March 2023 (Thursday) 19:00-20:35

Venue: Staircase 4, Rui'an Building, Siping Campus

Topic:  Who Moved My Genes

Presenter: Xue Lei

Xue Lei has a B.S. from Peking University, a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich, and a postdoctoral fellowship from Yale University School of Medicine; he was a research associate at Yale University School of Medicine and a research specialist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has published more than 70 SCI papers in Science and other international journals as first/corresponding author. He was awarded the Pujiang Talent by Shanghai, New Century Talent by the Ministry of Education, First Prize of Science and Technology Progress by Shanghai, and First Prize of Technical Invention by the Ministry of Education. He was awarded the First Prize of Science and Technology Progress by Shanghai Municipality and First Prize of Technology Invention by the Ministry of Education. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Advance in Alzheimer's Disease, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology and Frontiers in Cell Death, and Editorial Board Member of Genes and Scientific Reports. He is on the editorial board of several journals including Reports.

Research area 

JNK signalling channels play a crucial role in cell proliferation, migration, apoptosis, stress response and individual senescence. Their dysregulation can lead to developmental defects and premature senescence, and is closely associated with tumourigenesis and migration, immune dysregulation, Alzheimer's disease and the onset and development of many important diseases.

In recent years, we have used Drosophila as a model animal for genetic screening and have identified over 30 new genes in the JNK signalling channel, some of which have been analysed and identified and published in top international academic journals such as Developmental Cell and Science. We will continue to investigate the remaining genes to explore their molecular functions in the JNK signalling channel and to elucidate their mechanisms of action in apoptosis, individual ageing, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

Selection is an act and represents intelligence, and its regulatory molecules and mechanisms of action remain to be deciphered. We have used the mate choice and orientation of Drosophila to investigate the molecular mechanisms of selection and the genetic factors that regulate it. We have also developed Drosophila models of cancer and Alzheimer's disease, and used these disease models to screen and test the effects of various Chinese herbal ingredients on delaying ageing, treating cancer and Alzheimer's disease.