美国科学院院士董欣年教授访问植生生态所

6月28日，美国科学院院士、杜克大学董欣年教授作为“植生生态所系列讲座报告”特邀嘉宾访问植生生态所。

所长韩斌院士，党委书记郭金华研究员，副所长王成树研究员、龚继明研究员，所长助理王佳伟研究员，陈晓亚院士，林鸿宣院士等200余人参加了上午的报告会。韩斌院士首先对董欣年教授的来访表示热烈欢迎，随后介绍了她的学术背景、研究方向、研究成果及获得的荣誉。董欣年教授做了题为“Precision in plant immune expression: Not lost in translation”的学术报告。2号科研大楼报告厅里座无虚席，许多老师和学生只能站在后排或者席地而坐，聆听植物领域里的顶尖专家为大家精心准备的报告。报告会后，韩斌院士为董欣年教授颁发了嘉许证书，感谢她为植生生态所发展提供的帮助。

中午，董欣年教授和研究生代表举行了午餐座谈会。同学们把握难得的机会，提出自己在学习中碰到的问题和疑惑。下午，董欣年教授分别与我所陈晓亚院士、何祖华研究员、方玉达研究员、谢芳研究员、张鹏研究员（结构）、张一婧研究员、周志华研究员等课题组进行了单独交流。

董欣年教授于1982年在武汉大学获微生物专业学士学位，1988年在西北大学（Northwestern University in Chicago）获得分子生物学博士学位。在哈佛医学院（Massachusetts General Hospital）从事博士后研究期间，她开始用拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）作为模式研究植物免疫的分子机制。1992年起，在杜克大学担任助理教授，2004年晋升正教授。董欣年教授实验室在植物抗病和免疫机制领域做出了卓越贡献。克隆了植物系统获得性抗性关键基因NPR1，解析了植物防御与生物钟、细胞周期以及DNA损伤修复机制之间关系，阐明了蛋白质精确翻译调控植物抗病的分子机理。董欣年教授2011年受聘成为HHMI研究员，同年当选美国科学促进会成员，2012年当选美国科学院院士，2013年当选美国微生物科学院院士。同年她被评为武汉大学杰出校友。

附：Xinnian Dong received her B.S. degree in microbiology from Wuhan University in China in 1982 and came to the US to pursue her graduate degree in the same year. Xinnian Dong was awarded Ph.D. degree in molecular biology by Northwestern University in Chicago in 1988.  She became interested in using Arabidopsis thaliana as model organism to study plant immune mechanisms when she was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Fred Ausubel at Massachusetts General Hospital in Harvard Medical School. Xinnian Dong became an Assistant Professor at Duke University in 1992 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999 and Full Professor in 2004. She is currently an Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Biology (since 2007). Her laboratory identified NPR1, a master regulator of immune regulator in plants, and made several important discoveries on how NPR1 transduces the immune signal salicylic acid in conferring pathogen resistance. Recently, the Dong lab discovered a surprising connection between plant defense with the circadian clock and with the DNA damage repair machinery. Xinnian Dong became a HHMI investigator in 2011, elected as an AAAS fellow in 2011, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012 and an American Academy of Microbiology Fellow in 2013. She was also named as an outstanding alumna of Wuhan University in the same year.