Professor LIU Xingguo from Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health (GIBH) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences visited IHB on March 16^th, 2023. (Credit: MA Yun)

Professor LIU Xingguo from Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health (GIBH) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences visited the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on March 16^th, 2023. During his visit, Prof. Liu delivered a speech titled "Synthesis, Assembly, and Adaptation of Mitochondria as Cellular Devices."    

Mitochondrial dysfunction can lead to a variety of diseases, including tumors, metabolic diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Due to the difficulty of mammalian mitochondrial transformation and DNA editing, there are currently no good models for studying mitochondrial diseases.  

In the presentation, Liu introduced his research team's work on artificial synthesis, assembly, and adaptation of mitochondria. By synthesizing mitochondrial genomes and assembling mitochondrial organelles, his team successfully introduced mitochondria into cells and constructed a cellular model for mitochondrial disease research, providing a foundation for mitochondrial function research and the development of potential mitochondrial disease treatment plans.   

Liu also introduced his team's progress in regulating mitochondrial self-assembly and transcription through phase separation, as well as the study of the regulation of nuclear gene expression by mitochondrial TCA-related enzymes.    

Liu's research mainly focuses on mitochondrial and metabolic remodeling in cell fate determination, and mechanisms of mitochondrial diseases and therapy by stem cells. He is currently the executive editor of Science Bulletin, executive director of the Asian Society of Mitochondrial Research and Medicine, and executive director of the Biophysical Society of China.