Professor Thomas Südhof, winner of 2013Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine visits the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the morning of April 28, 2014.He was invited by Professors SUN Jianyuan and CAO Peng, both his formerresearch team members, to join the First Mini Symposium on Cellular Trafficking Processes held at IBP. He was welcomed by Professor XU Ruiming, Director of Bureau of Frontier Sciences and Education of CAS and Professor SUN Ming, Deputy Director of IBP, and many researchers from IBP and other institutes nearby.

Professor Südhof gave a keynote speech titled “A molecular machine for neurotransmitter release” in which he systematically introduced the important discoveries in revealing the molecular mechanism that triggers and regulates synaptic vesicle release.Later, professors from IBP, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, and Institute of Zoology reported their most recent progress in terms of vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis as well as vesicle trafficking.. As an attendee, Professor Südhof showed much interest in those most updated progress and joined the discussion amongthe participants. This was the first symposium on cellular trafficking and gathered most of CAS researchers in the field in Beijing area. These scientists are looking forward to forming an international team in the study of cellular trafficking, led by Professor Südhof in the near future.