On 19 July 2021, Prof. Zhang Xu, a member from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was invited by IBP to give a lecture entitled FGF13 Function in the Nervous System. The lecture was hosted by Prof. He Sheng, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Prof. Zhang Xu is a researcher devoted himself to the molecular cell biology of neurological diseases for a long time. He has systematically studied the gene expression profiles of the dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord in chronic pain, and discovered new nociceptive information regulatory systems such as endogenous sodium-potassium pump agonists, providing a new theoretical basis for clinical analgesia and drug development. The interactions between opioid receptor subtypes in injurious sensory neurons and their correlation with morphine analgesic tolerance were discovered, expanding the direction of functional and drug research on receptor complexes. He discovered that fibroblast growth factor 13 (FGF13) regulates neuronal and brain development through stabilizing microtubules, and elucidated the mechanism of mental retardation caused by FGF13 gene defects. He has published more than 120 papers and co-edited the Textbook of Pain, a classic textbook on pain management.

In the report, Prof. Zhang Xu introduced the recent work of his group from three perspectives: the function of FGF13 in the peripheral nervous system, the function of FGF13 in the central nervous system and the impact of FGF13 in clinical cases. He concluded that FGF13 protein is critical to cortical development, the gene for FGF13 is located on the X chromosome, and FGF13-deficient mice are alternative models for X-chromosome-linked mental retardation. In some cases of Chinese boys with mental retardation, there is a high prevalence of SNP in the FGF13 gene, and FGF13 mutant knock-in mice also show deficits in neurodevelopment and learning memory.

After the report, the researchers and students had a lively discussion with him.