About Us

The Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology focuses on major diseases (cardiovascular and cranial vascular diseases, neurological diseases and prevalent ophthalmological diseases). Our department has established a world-leading multi-disciplinary research platform with a group of excellent faculty members. Research areas include discovering disease-related genes and genomics, investigating gene and protein function, as well as generating and characterizing animal models for human diseases. Each area has its own unique features and yet they are all mutually connected. Our faculty members have undertook major research projects of main national research plans such as the “973”, “863” and National Natural Science Foundation grants. The research conducted here has led to a series of important achievements that have been recognized internationally. We have also trained a group of high-level innovative personnel. Our faculty members compose the core of a research team that has been awarded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China in 2009 as “Yangtze River Distinguished Scholar Innovative Team”. This team received rolling support in 2014 for outstanding team building and demonstrating significant potential.

Research Areas

1. To collect and employ human genetic resources with a focus on major diseases including cardiovascular and cranial vascular diseases as well as neurological diseases. To identify disease-causing genes, genes conferring disease susceptibility, and genetic variants associated with the diseases.

Group members: Wang Qing, Zhang Xianqin, Jiang Tao, Li Hui, Ke Tie, Xu Chengqi, Ren Bowen, Liu Jingyu and Liu Mugen.

2. To characterize the structure and function of disease-related genes and their protein products, as well as the effects of disease-related mutations/variants on protein function. To establish disease-related animal models and investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying disease pathology.

Group members: Wang Qing, Lu Qunwei, Zhang Luoying, Zhang Xianqin, Wang Chenhui, Jia Haibo, Li Hui, Jiang Tao, Ke Tie, Xu Chengqi, Liu Jingyu, Liu Mugen and Hong Ling.

3. To screen and identify novel molecular targets for disease prevention and treatment.

Group members: Wang Qing, Lu Qunwei