Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America June 2019 NEWSLETTER Volume 34 | Issue 2 Newsletter Editor: Jianming Xu, Ph.D. Production Editor: Chris Lau, Ph.D. CONTENTS 2018 SCBA Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter Annual Christmas Symposium By Chapter President Dr. Li Yang 1. 2018 SCBA Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter Annual Christmas Symposium P1 The 2018 SCBA DC-Baltimore Chapter Annual Christmas Symposium was held at the New Fortune Chinese Restaurant 2. The 33rd Annual Symposium of SCBA-Texas Chapter located in Gaithersburg, Maryland on Dec. 8th, 2018. Dr. Li Yang, P4 the chapter President, organized this event, with support from the chapter’s President-Elect Dr. Ji Luo and the Secretary Dr. Yufei 3. A List of Recent Reports and Articles Related to the Jiang, as well as many volunteers. Topics and Concerns of Chinese American Scientists P7 Dr. Ji Luo delivered the welcome remarks and introduced the sister societies including NIH CSSA (Chinese Student Scholar 4. Welcome new members P8 Association), CBA (Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association), as well as the NIH Taiwanese association. Dr. Li Yang gave the 2018 5. Call for 2019 SCBA Election P9 local chapter annual activity report. In her report, she outlined SCBA focused effort in 2018 which is to reach out and to 6. Seventeenth SCBA International Symposium P10 promote a culture of inclusiveness and engagement in SCBA community. She highlighted the local chapter leadership structure, 7. Joseph Li Travel Awards Announcement P11 SCBA Board of Presidents, SCBA Advisory Committee that consists of 2-3 faculty members from each local universities and 8. Information of Candidates for 2019 Election Appendix research institutes. Three addition social events were held to and 2019 Election Ballot facilitate the communication and collaboration among the leadership members, and to foster the further interaction between Bethesda and Baltimore areas members. Dr. Yang welcomed collaboration from NIH Taiwanese association and thanked Drs. Chi-ping Day and Emily Tai for their effort. As a new outreach effort, starting from this year (2018), the SCBA local chapter will invite new faculties in the DC-Baltimore area to attend the annual Christmas Symposium free of charge. Dr. Yang emphasized the success of the annual Scientific Symposium sponsored by the SCBA DC Baltimore Chapter. The symposium brings local scientists together to promote scientific communication and collaborations, as well as to provide a networking platform for our local SCBA members. She announced the 2019 Scientific Symposium will be held on March 16, 2019 in University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Li Yang also summarized the success of many of the local chapter’s scientific and social activities in 2018. These include the Kuan- Teh Jeang Memorial Lecture, the SCBA-NIH CSSA summer picnic, and a scientific session in CBA’s 2018 Annual Conference. Dr. Luo reported in place for Dr. Chunzhang Yang, the Treasurer- June 2019 SCBA Newsletter 1 Volume 34 | Issue 2 elect of the local chapter, the financial summary of SCBA local than the sum of its parts” by Aristotle to encourage SCBA chapter. There was a 24% fgrowth in chapter fund in 2018. Dr. community come together to achieve its goals. For the event entertainment, Ziyi Liu played 古筝: 渔舟唱晚 和女儿情; Hong Sang Wang sang 意大利文歌《我亲爱的爸 爸》or《O Mio Babbino Caro 》and 哈萨克民歌《燕子》; and Hao Ling sang 乎伦贝儿大草原, where she is from! The highlight of 2018 Christmas symposium is the outstanding talk “From follower to leader: navigating the American science” delivered by Dr. Edison Liu, president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory. Dr. Liu is well known for his leadership roles and achievements. He was the Director of the Division of Clinical Science at the NCI in 1996, and Executive Director of the Genomic Institute of Singapore from 2001 to 2012. Thereafter he took on the CEO position at The Jackson Laboratory. In many of these leadership roles, Dr. Liu is responsible for building the 2018 Christmas event snap shot #1 institute infrastructure, overseeing budget, managing talent recruitment and directing scientific mission strategic plan. His Yang then high-lighted high impact publications and awards for success in the US and in Singapore, two very distinct culture our local chapter members. environments, is remarkable and is very inspiring to members of the SCBA. Dr. Liu’s presentation was insightful and well- received, and generated much interest and discussion. After the event, Dr. Liu met with the SCBA chapter senior members and gave advice on leadership opportunities and challenges. 2018 Christmas event snap shot #2 Dr. Yang Liu was elected as the President –Elect for SCBA Dr. Li Yang would like to thank the President-Elect Dr. Ji Luo, DC Baltimore Chapter, will serve in the year 2020 the Secretary Dr. Yufei Jiang, and the Treasurer Dr. Chunzhang Yang for their service and support. Dr. Yang thanks the local chapter board of Presidents and Advisory Committee for their collaboration as well as leadership. Dr. Yang is grateful to Dr. Dr. Yang Liu was elected as the President –Elect for the SCBA Mitchel Ho for organizing the successful annual scientific DC Baltimore Chapter, who will serve in the year 2020. Dr. Yang symposium, and Dr. Ying Zhang for maintaining local chapter Liu is the Director, Division of Immunotherapy, and Professor of web site. Dr. Yang’s great appreciation also goes to Drs. Ziyi Liu Surgery, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland and Ling Hao (the past and current President of NIH-CSSA), Drs. School of Medicine. He has been showing the strong Dong Sheng and Frank Li (the past and current President of CBA), commitment to SCBA DC-Baltimore Chapter. Drs. Chi-ping Day and Emily Tai (the NIH Taiwanese Association), and Mr. Mike Jing (Founder and EVP, Cyberdata Dr. Li Yang received an award in recognition of her outstanding Inc.) for his generous financial support of our local chapter leadership and service to the Chapter. activities. Dr. Yang thanks the many special volunteers and photographers for their hard work throughout the event. A total of 85 scientists from local universities, NIH, FDA as well as CBA attended this year’s Christmas symposium. Dr. Li Yang finished her report quoting “The whole is greater Dr. Ji Luo, the chapter President -Elect delivered welcome June 2019 SCBA Newsletter 2 Volume 34 | Issue 2 remarks The chapter President, Dr. Li Yang, gave the 2018 local chapter annual activity report. Dr. Ji Luo provided 2018 financial summary. Ziyi Liu 古筝: 渔舟唱晚和女儿情 Hong Sang Wang: 意大利文歌《我亲爱的爸爸》or《O Mio Babbino Caro 》 and 哈萨克民歌《燕子》 Hao Ling: 乎伦贝儿大草原 Dr. Edison Liu, president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory, delivered a talk entitled “From follower to leader: navigating the American science”. Acknowledgement: We thank Dr. Jack Zhu of NCI, NIH for providing all pictures used in this report. Dr. Ji Luo (left) presented an award to Dr. Li Yang, president of SCBA DC Baltimore Chapter, for her outstanding leadership and service. 2018 Christmas symposium group photo June 2019 SCBA Newsletter 3 Volume 34 | Issue 2 Feng (UH); “Dynamic roles of ghrelin signaling in immunometabolism and metabolic reprogramming” by Dr. Yuxiang Sun (College Station, Texas A&M). In the early afternoon, 35 trainees (students and postdoctoral The 33rd Annual Symposium of fellows of Chinese and non-Chinese ethnicity who are currently SCBA-Texas Chapter working in ethnic Chinese faculty laboratories) gave oral presentations in six concurrent sessions. Dr. Yi Li (Professor of Baylor College of Medicine) served as the chair of the trainees’ sessions. Judges for the trainees’ presentations included Drs. By Cynthia Ju, Yong Xu, Yi Li, Xiaodong Chen, Jiang Chang Qingchun Tong (UTHEALTH), Zhao Wang (BCM), Yong Zhou (UTHEALTH), Meng Wang (BCM), Na Li (BCM), Li Qin (BCM), Longhou Fang (TMHRI), Feng Yang (BCM), Yu Liu rd The SCBA Texas Chapter (SCBA-TX) hosted its 33 annual (UH), Binliang Fang (MDACC), Xinchun Pi (BCM), Nancy symposium in the Texas Medical Center of Houston, Texas, on Huang (IBT), Guangwei Du (UTHEALTH), Weihua Zhang May 18, 2019. It was a very successful annual event, completing (UH), Yejing Ge (MDACC), Wenliang Li (UTHEALTH), Jun another new page of the SCBA-TX chapter’s long history. The Wang (UTHEALTH), Weiyi Peng (UH). symposium was packed with exciting presentations and with an enthusiastic audience, representing the faculty members, The winners for the prestigious SCBA-TX trainee awards were: postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and staff members from Qilin Gu for the first-place award ($300), Hesong Liu and Zhao- all of the academic institutions at the Texas Medical Center, Zhe Hao for the second-place award ($200), Chinghui Chen, including Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), University of Yonghong Liu, Katherine Shatzer, Ji Yeon Noh, Ying Cui, Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), University of Sandie Shan, Jingkun Qu, Peng Tan for the third-place award Texas-Health Science Center at Houston (UTHEALTH), ($100). The winner for the Professor Alexander Yeu-Ming Wang University of Houston (UH), Texas A&M-University Institute of Memorial Scholarship ($500) is Shiyang Song. This is a highly Biosciences & Technology (IBT) at Houston, the Methodist prestigious and competitive award that was established in 1995 Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI). There were also by Professor Wang’s family to honor Professor Alexander Yeu- participants from other cities of Texas, including University of Ming Wang for his contributions and achievements to science, Texas-Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and Texas A&M- education, Chinese community, and SCBA in which Dr. Wang University at College Station. The keynote speaker was Dr. served as a founder. Duojia Pan, an internationally known pioneer in Hippo signaling in developmental biology and cancer. This year’s symposium was held at the Alkek Auditorium of Baylor College of Medicine as a traditional all-day event from 8:30am to 5:30pm.