On July 21, School of Basic Medicine assisted the Subcellular Structures and Functions Subgroup of Biophysical Society of China in hosting the 8th online academic forum. The forum was presided over by Prof. Cong MA from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Yin LAI from Sichuan University and nearly 70 teachers and graduate students attended this online event.
The speaker Prof. Jiajie DIAO reported his latest research findings on molecular probes for super-resolution imaging of sub-cellular dynamics. Prof. Diao’s team have developed various fluorescent probes based on small molecules for super-resolution imaging of organelles and their interactions as part of their efforts to reveal detailed molecular mechanism. In his speech, Prof. Diao mainly introduced three molecular probes, that is, Coupa, Zn-STIMO, and ER-BDP. Coupa, a small organic molecular probe is synthesized to stain mitochondria and lysosomes simultaneously and monitor the interaction of mitochondria and lysosomes in living cells. Simultaneous Zn2+ tracking in multiple organelles (Zn-STIMO) is a method that uses SIM and a single Zn2+ fluorescent probe, allowing super-resolution morphology-correlated organelle identification in live cells. ER-BDP, a new ER-targeted probe, is created for super-resolution imaging that can specifically respond to changes in ER hydrophobicity under stress. Prof. Diao’s research findings provide significant research methods for tracking sub-cellular structure change and its dynamic control.
At the end of the report, the audience present asked several questions about the influence of PH on the fluorescence of zinc probe and the cell permeability of ER-BDP probe. Prof. Diao’s team members made response to all the questions one by one in the chat box. Prof. Diao also expressed his willingness to help the audience’s team to conduct related research if needed.
During the pandemic, online meetings represent a useful way to enhance the academic exchange at home and abroad. Such events enable domestic researchers to learn about the latest research findings globally. More importantly, those online meetings can lay a solid foundation for researchers from different universities to cooperate closely in the future.
An introduction to the speaker:
Dr. Jiajie Diao is an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and a co-director of the Center for Chemical Imaging in Biomedicine. Dr. Diao received his PhD in physics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and conducted his postdoc research at Stanford University. His research is using advanced biophysical tools to study subcellular dynamics. Dr. Diao has published 110 papers in top-tier journals including Nature, PNAS, Nat Struct Mol Biol, Nat Commun, Nat Protoc, Cell Chem Biol, eLife, JACS, Angew Chem, ACS Nano, Biomaterials. He was awarded the 2022 UC Sigma Xi Young Investigator Award and the 2015 Young Scientist Prize in Biological Physics by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. He is an editorial board member of BMC Biology and a guest editor of PNAS, and has been serving as an ad-hoc reviewer for more than 70 journals.
