Prof. David Irwin from the University of Toronto, Canada, paid a visit to Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) on May 30.

On May 30, Prof. David Irwin from the University of Toronto, Canada, was invited to the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Science (IHB) to conduct academic exchanges for researchers and graduate students and gave a presentation entitled "Evolution of Glucose Uptake by Vertebrate Liver Cells". 

In his presentation, Prof. Irwin first introduced the synthesis, regulation, and important functions of glucose and various enzymes involved in keeping glucose to maintain normal physiological levels, such as the glucokinase (GCK), a kind of hexokinase. Then he further showed the evolution of glucokinase regulatory genes (GCKR) in vertebrate in detail. Prof. Irwin also exhibited many interesting discoveries their research group have found. For example, hexokinases originate early in eukaryotes. Hexokinase genes are located in conserved genomic neighborhoods. GCKR genes are found in a lot of species, except birds, and so on. 

David Irwin focuses on the genetic and molecular evolution of metabolism related genes and is currently a professor at the University of Toronto. He is also a guest professor at Peking University and Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS and an editor of Molecular Biology and Evolution.