Luojia Forum

On June 13, Academician Yan Ning, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation, Director of the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, and Chair Professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Life Sciences, was invited to participate in Wuhan University’s 438th Luojia Forum and the 4th Taikang Medical Education Grand Lecture. Academician Song Baoliang, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Wuhan University, Vice President of Wuhan University, Dean of Taikang Medical School (Basic Medical School), and Director of Taikang Life Sciences Center, attended the forum and presented a commemorative plaque to Academician Yan Ning on behalf of the Luojia Forum and Taikang Medical Education Lecture organizers. The lecture was hosted by Professor Li Guohong, Dean of the School of Life Sciences of Wuhan University, in a packed venue.

The 438th Luojia Forum of Wuhan University and the 4th Taikang Medical Education Lecture (of Basic Medical School)

At the event, Academician Yan Ning delivered a lecture on the topic of ‘Structural Pharmacology of Sodium and Calcium Ion Channels’, in which she introduced the latest progress of her team in the research of sodium and calcium ion channel structural pharmacology. She elaborated on the systematic research findings focusing on the structure, function, andpharmacological mechanism of voltage-gated sodium ion channels.

Yan Ning

Following the lecture, Academician Yan Ning had an enthusiastic exchange with participating teachers and students. Drawing from her own research experience, she addressed academic inquiries and shared cutting-edge knowledge, encouraging young scholars to tackle scientific challenges with the same dedication as “leveling up and defeating monsters in a game.”

The fully packed venue

About Academician Yan Ning:

Yan Ning

Yan Ning was elected as a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2019, a foreign associate of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2023. She is primarily dedicated to researching the structure and mechanism of transmembrane transport proteins. Internationally, her team was the first to reveal the atomic resolution structures of a series of transmembrane proteins of physiological and pathological significance, including human glucose transporter proteins, eukaryotic voltage-gated sodium ion channels, and calcium ion channels, laying a molecular foundation for understanding the pathogenesis of related diseases and drug development. Currently, her research mainly focuses on the pathogenesis of pain and drug development.

Yan Ning has received numerous awards from home and abroad, including the Young Scientist Award from Science/AAAS and GE Healthcare (North America), the first International Young Scientist Award from the HHMI in the United States, the Outstanding Young Female Scientist Award in China, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Science and Technology Progress, the Young Scientist Award from the International Protein Society, the Sackler International Biophysics Prize, the Outstanding Research Award from the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (FAOBMB), the Florence R. Sabin Award for Outstanding Research, the Anatrace Membrane Protein Research Award, and the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, among others.

Rewritten by Shuya Xiong, Edited by Shi Yuqing