On August 16, 2016, Dr. Eric Ursell Selker, invited by Prof. ZHU Bing, visited IBP and delivered the BEI Shizhang Lecture. 

Prof. Eric Ursell Selker is now a professor of biology and member of Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon. In 2012, Dr. Selker was elected as a member of National Academy of Sciences, USA. His lab is interested in how the eukaryotic genome is structured, how it functions and how it changes. 

Prof. Eric Ursell Selker delivered the BEI Shizhang Lecture entitled “Epigentic studies in Neurospora crassa”. He presented his interesting findings: He uses Neurospora crassa as the model organism to do epigenetic studies. Neurospora crassa is relatively simple but complex enough to have the goodies. Dr. Ursell introduced the H3K27 methylation and H3K9 methylation location in Neurospora crassa genome and discussed how they impact gene silencing and heterochromatin formation. 

The audience posed many interesting questions after the lecture. Dr. Selker gave detailed explanations and the audience spoke highly of his wonderful speech.