Academician Yeguang Chen from Peking University was invited by IBP to give a report entitled Intestinal epitheliogenesis and homeostasis on October 15, 2021. The lecture was presided by Professor Xiaochen Wang. Principal Investigators and students from IBP and other institutes attended the report.

Prof. Yeguang Chen has long been committed to the research on the molecular mechanism of cell signaling. His research interests focus on how TGF-β and Wnt signaling are regulated and their roles in embryogenesis, stem cell self-renewal and differentiation and tumorigenesis. He and his group have published more than 160 academic papers in journals such as Science, Cell Stem Cell, Nat Cell Biol, Molecular Cell and Blood and applied for a number of invention patents. Prof. Chen is the distinguished professor of "Chang Jiang Scholars Program", and the winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. In 2017, he was elected as the Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In this report, Prof. Yeguang Chen shared their breakthroughs in the regulation mechanism of small intestinal epithelial stem cell genesis and homeostasis maintenance in recent years. Professor Chen's team found that homozygous knockout of intestinal MYH9 could promote cell necrosis, destroy cell connection and intestinal barrier, as well as induce colitis, and this phenotype can be restored by blocking cell necrosis pathway. This study revealed that MYH9 could promote intestinal homeostasis and maintain the integrity of intestinal barrier by negatively regulating cell necrosis. Furthermore, Professor Chen's team sequenced the single-cell transcriptome of five gastrointestinal epithelial cells at different development stages, and identified a variety of cell subsets for the first time.

Professor Chen's report was profound and easy-to-understand. The report evoked great interest of the researchers and students, and they had discussions with Prof. Yeguang Chen after the report.

Professor Xiaochen Wang hosted the lecture

Academician Yeguang Chen was giving the lecture

Prof. Ruiming Xu and Academician Yeguang Chen

The audience