NO.25

Time：2:30 PM, May 9, 2024 (Thursday)

Location: Room 1322, North Tower, Basic Research Building, Capital Medical University 

Host: Prof. Lin Mei 

     Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Beijing

Speaker: Prof. Tian Xue

School of Life Sciences

University of Science & Technology of China

Dr. Tian Xue got his bachelor’s degree at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2000 and Ph.D. degree in Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in 2005. From 2006-2012 he was postdoctoral fellow with Dr. King-Wai Yau in Johns Hopkins. He is currently a Chair Professor at USTC and Director of the Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on understanding phototransduction, light regulation of life processes and exploring new techniques for vision restoration. He received many awards including the Xplorer Prize, the New Cornerstone Investigator, Tan Jiazhen Life Science Innovation Award, Top Ten Scientific Advances of China, etc.

Title: Light and Life: Neuronal Mechanisms of Light Regulation of Life Processes

Abstract:

Life on Earth thrives and evolves under solar irradiation, making light one of the most important external environmental factors for living organisms. Beyond providing visual perception, light perception also governs numerous physiological functions. Moreover, its function compromises lead to severe vision diseases. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms of light sensation, its regulation of physiological functions, and subsequently achieve vision repairment and restoration by translational approaches.

In this seminar, we will report our laboratory’s serial discoveries regarding molecular and cellular mechanisms governing the development, aging and phototransduction of the retina; the structure and function of the "retina-brain" neural circuits on the regulation of life processes, and achievements of vision restoration and enhancement by stem cell therapy, gene editing and biomaterials.

Selected Papers:

1. Meng JJ, Shen JW, Li G, Ouyang CJ, Hu JX, Li ZS, Zhao H, Shi YM, Zhang M, Liu R, Chen JT, Ma YQ, Zhao H, Xue T. Light modulates glucose metabolism by a retina-hypothalamus-brown adipose tissue axis.Cell. 2023;186(2):398-412.e17 
2. Hu J, Shi Y, Zhang J, Huang X, Wang Q, Zhao H, Shen J, Chen Z, Song W, Zheng P, Zhan S, Sun Y, Cai P, An K, Ouyang C, Zhao B, Zhou Q, Xu L, Xiong W, Zhang Z, Meng J, Chen J, Ma Y, Zhao H, Zhang M, Qu K, Hu J, Luo M, Xu F, Chen X, Xiong Y, Bao J, Xue T. Melanopsin retinal ganglion cells mediate light-promoted brain development. 2022;185(17):3124-3137.e15 
3. Ma Y, Bao J, Zhang Y, Li Z, Zhou X, Wan C, Huang L, Zhao Y, Han G, Xue T. Mammalian Near-Infrared Image Vision through Injectable and Self-Powered Retinal Nanoantennae. 2019;177(2):243-255.e15.Cell Best of 2019, Cell press (9 Best Articles which published in Cell in 2019)

Speaker: Prof. Jiayi Zhang

Institutes of Brain Science

Fudan University

Dr. Jiayi Zhang received her B.Sc. Degree from Hong Kong Baptist University and Ph.D. degree from Brown University. She was a Brown-Coxe postdoctoral fellow in Yale University and joined Institutes of Brain Science at Fudan University in 2012.  Her recent work focused on the decoding and restoration of vision. Her work was published in journals including Nature Biomedical Engineering, Neuron, Advanced Materials and Nature Communications. She received the Young Innovative Woman Award in Shanghai in 2020. She serves as the Vice chairman of the Neurotechnology Panel, Chinese Neuroscience Society (CNS).

Title: Image-forming vision restoration and decoding

Abstract:

Photoreceptors in the retina are fundamental units of light perception and play a key role in vision, the most important sense for human being, by turning light signals into electrical activities of these cells. Vision loss could be induced in some retinal diseases simply by damage/degeneration of photoreceptors, even though the neural circuitries in the rest parts of the retina and visual centers remain functional. Photoreceptor diseases are exemplified by Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP, 370,000 patients in China) and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD, 30,000,000 patients in China).

In experimental RP mice model, she succeeded in restoring some visual functions, as demonstrated by a variety of electrophysiological and behavioral tests, by implanting titania nanowire arrays as artificial photoreceptors. These studies, designed and conducted through weaving technologies and concepts from physical and biological sciences, achieving a spatial resolution of 77.5 µm and a temporal resolution of 3.92 Hz. In photoreceptor-damaged monkeys, the arrays, which were implanted and remained stable for 54 weeks, allowed for the detection of a 10-μW mm^-2 beam of light. These artificial photoreceptors are now being tested in human clinical trials, with several lines of promising evidence indicating partial restoration of blind person’s vision.

The talk will also touch upon visual information decoding in the visual cortex.

Selected Papers:

1. Yang R, Zhao P, Wang L, Feng C, Peng C, Wang Z, Zhang Y, Shen M, Shi K, Weng S, Dong C, Zeng F, Zhang T, Chen X, Wang S, Wang Y, Luo Y, Chen Q, Chen Y, Jiang C, Jia S, Yu Z, Liu J, Wang F, Jiang S, Xu W, Li L, Wang G, Mo X, Zheng G, Chen A, Zhou X, Jiang C, Yuan Y, Yan B, Zhang J. Assessment of visual function in blind mice and monkeys with subretinally implanted nanowire arrays as artificial photoreceptors. Nat Biomed Eng. 2023 Nov 23. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37996614
2. Yu Q, Bi Z, Jiang S, Yan B, Chen H, Wang Y, Miao Y, Li K, Wei Z, Xie Y, Tan X, Liu X, Fu H, Cui L, Xing L, Weng S, Wang X, Yuan Y, Zhou C, Wang G, Li L, Ma L, Mao Y, Chen L, Zhang J. Visual cortex encodes timing information in humans and mice. 2022;110(24):4194-4211.e10
3. Zheng H, Zhang Z, Jiang S, Yan B, Shi X, Xie Y, Huang X, Yu Z, Liu H, Weng S, Nurmikko A, Zhang Y, Peng H, Xu W, Zhang J. A shape-memory and spiral light-emitting device for precise multisite stimulation of nerve bundles.Nat Commun. 2019;10(1):2790