For the second year in a row, the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR) was awarded the 2020 Beijing Advanced Group in Laboratory Animal Industry (BAGLAI) prize for excellence in care and use of research animals by the Beijing Laboratory Animal Society on December 8, 2020. The CIBR Laboratory Animal Resource Center (referred to as "the Center") is a state-of-the-art core facility providing a wide range of technical services surrounding the use and husbandry of research animals, such as laboratory animal breeding and care, veterinary services, resource conservation and sharing, pathogen free rederivation, embryo and sperm freezing, animal ordering and distribution, training in use of research animals, and creation of animal disease models, among other services tailored to the needs of individual researchers.

The Center is currently in its second phase of development, with the completion of Phase I during which the license of laboratory animal use was obtained on July 12, 2019 and services were initiated. The planning and design of the Phase II laboratory animal facilities have also been completed, including rodent laboratory animal facilities (about 30,000 cages) and an ABSL2 and non-human primate research facility. Covering more than 1,500 square meters, the Center has several functional areas such as a rat and mouse holding room, embryo operation room, behavioral room, surgery and imaging room, etc. The Center is also equipped with specialized animal feeding equipment including individually ventilated cages (IVC), walk-in and cabinet type cage washers, filling machines, pulse vacuum sterilizer, cage changing stations, and a high throughput xenon light pass-through sterilization chamber, etc., in addition to other standard laboratory apparatuses like biosafety cabinets, stereotactic surgical devices, ventilators and anesthesia machines for small animals, and in vivo imagers.

The Center has established service groups that include feeding and care teams, veterinarians, embryo operation technicians, animal model specialists, and facility maintenance staff. All staff members at the Center are proudly committed to ensuring the quality and welfare of research animals, and providing scientists with advanced technical services related to laboratory animals.

Website of Laboratory Animal Resource Center:

http://laboratory-animal-resource-center.cibr.ac.cn/

Discovery of how the complex nervous system coordinates during behaviors remains a central question in the field of neuroscience, as well as whether abnormalities in neuronal communication are linked with diseases. Neurotransmitters are bridging molecules that mediate the chemical communication between neurons. The first identified neurotransmitter, acetylcholine (ACh), is widely understood to be an essential component in the regulation of multiple physiological processes, ranging from development, to sensation, motor control, cardiovascular function, and higher brain cognitive functions such as learning and memory [1-3]. Due to the complex nature of the nervous system and the functional diversity of ACh, questions persist as to when ACh release is triggered during behaviors, where it is released, and how it is sensed by different cells, the resolution of which will further our understanding of nervous system function.

On September 28th, 2020, in close collaboration with Dr. Yulong Li’s lab at Peking University, the Miao Jing Lab at CIBR published a research paper entitled "An Optimized Acetylcholine Sensor for Monitoring In Vivo Cholinergic Activity" in Nature Methods, which reports the development of a next generation ACh sensor and its application in tracking cholinergic signals in various model organisms in vivo. This ACh sensor is engineered to use a G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) backbone that can convert the conformational change of GPCR induced by ACh binding into a sensitive fluorescent signal through coupling with a circular permutated GFP. In their previous work, an initial version of the ACh sensor was developed that could specifically report ACh dynamics [4]. Based on their success, the team further optimized the ACh sensor performance using site-directed random mutagenesis, resulting in the most recent version (ACh3.0), which exhibited a greater than 3-fold increase in sensitivity. More importantly, through rational engineering, the downstream signal coupling was removed in the new ACh sensor, making it as an isolated ACh detector that does not interfere with cellular physiology. The latest ACh sensor retains the fast response kinetics, physiologically relevant affinity, and precise molecular specificity for ACh detection, making it highly suitable for probing cholinergic signals in vivo.

Figure 1. Optimization and in vitro characterization of next generation GRAB-ACh sensors

Following in vitro characterization and optimization of ACh3.0, Jing and co-authors applied ACh3.0 in multiple model organisms, demonstrating successful in vivo detection of ACh release and dynamics. In Drosophila, this extremely sensitive ACh3.0 sensor enabled the detection of compartment-specific releases of ACh in the olfactory mushroom body while exposing live flies to various stimuli, thus suggesting that Cholinergic signaling in different regions may have distinct physiological functions. In mice, the ACh3.0 sensor also made it possible to detect ACh dynamics and precise spatiotemporal distribution of ACh during behaviors. The improved ACh3.0 sensor is sufficiently sensitive to track the rapid and transient ACh release evoked by a brief foot-shock stimulation, while also having the stability necessary to report long-term ACh dynamics during full sleep-wake cycles, therefore making it an ideal tool for future and ongoing exploration of ACh function.

Figure 2. Successful application of the improved sensor in Drosophila and mice

Dr. Miao Jing, a research fellow at CIBR, serves as the first author as well as co-corresponding author with Dr. Yulong Li (principal investigator at Peking University). Other collaborators include the Min Xu Lab from the Shanghai Institute for Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Science; the Haohong Li Lab from Huazhong University of Science and Technology; the Liangyi Chen Lab and Heping Cheng Lab from the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Peking University; Marco Prado, Lisa Saksida, Vania Prado, and Tim Bussey from Western University in Canada; and Andrew Hires Lab from the University of Southern California in the USA. This work is supported by the State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology at Peking University, National Natural Science Foundation of China, US BRAIN Initiative, and the scientific research programs of CIBR.

Reference

1. Dale, H.H., Feldberg, W. & Vogt, M. Release of acetylcholine at voluntary motor nerve endings. The Journal of Physiology 86, 353-380 (1936).

2. Winkler, J., Suhr, S.T., Gage, F.H., Thal, L.J. & Fisher, L.J. Essential role of neocortical acetylcholine in spatial memory. Nature 375, 484-487 (1995).

3. Brezenoff, H.E. in Federation proceedings, Vol. 43 17 (1984).

4. Jing, M. et al. A genetically encoded fluorescent acetylcholine indicator for in vitro and in vivo studies. Nature biotechnology 36, 726-737 (2018).

“My personal field of research is neurobiology. At present, we are focusing on using mouse and rat models to study the underlying neural circuits that mediate social behaviors and emotions.

Social behaviors are among the defining behaviors for groups and individual higher animals, including humans, and play significant roles in ensuring reproduction and survival. By contrast, social behavior dysfunction is regarded as a prominent feature of various neuropsychiatric disorders like autism, schizophrenia, and social phobia, etc. Therefore, learning how the human brain generates social behaviors can be informative towards improving our understanding of the behavior itself and for curing some psychiatric diseases. Most mammals respond to sensory cues emitted by conspecifics and learn a repertoire of social behaviors such as mating, fighting, prey capture, and predator avoidance. From that perspective, learning how the brain encodes social information and triggers corresponding social behaviors is a necessary aspect of neuroscience.

Generally, mammals generate complex social behaviors in nature, especially when moving freely. However, the long-standing question of how the brain encodes social information under natural conditions has remained largely unknown since the full suite of electrical activities of the nervous system in free-moving mammals cannot be easily recorded simultaneously using traditional methods. To overcome this research obstacle and reveal neural encoding features that correspond to different social information, we first used microendoscope-based calcium imaging in free-moving mice to record the calcium signals of the medial amygdala, which is an essential encephalic region responsible for instinctive social behaviors. In addition, we also found that oxytocin, as a kind of neuropeptide, plays an essential role in male mice for distinguishing gender, but has little effect in females. This finding further reveals the neurobiological basis of gender-based differences in social behavior, and provides a new mechanism for understanding brain plasticity.

In our recent research, we apply and develop interdisciplinary methods (including dual-color microendoscope-based calcium imaging, single-cell sequencing, in vivo and ex vivo electrophysiology approaches, etc.) to learn the generation and adaptation mechanisms controlling processes associated with encoding social information, as well as for social cognition and emotion. My main interests include: 1) brain encoding mechanisms for different kinds of social information; 2) the role of the neuromodulation system in social information encoding and social behavior generation; 3) the neurobiological basis of social cognitive and affective disorders; 4) differences and similarities in social information processing between young and adult individuals. It is my hope that our research will facilitate greater understanding of the social behaviors and emotions of human beings, leading to new therapeutic directions for some affective disorders.”

Dr. Ying Li received her Bachelor of Biology at Nanjing University in 2007, and earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013 with the Wu Rui Scholarship and the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s Award. In the same year, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Catherine Dulac in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department of Harvard University and was awarded the Breakthrough Prize and Academician of American NAS for postdoctoral research. She was financially supported by Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) and Long-term Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2014. She also won the Harvard Chinese Life Science Annual Distinguished Research Award in 2018. Dr. Li joined CIBR in 2019 and is currently working as a Principal Investigator and Ph.D. supervisor.

Focusing on the research of animal social behaviors and emotions, she has five publications in SCI journals including Cell, Developmental Cell, and Current Opinion in Neurobiology (cover), with over 400 citations. In addition, several ongoing projects of her group have won the support of the European HFSP Career Development Award, General Program of NSFC, and Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star Program.

Reference

http://www.qiushi.org/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=215&id=3527

We share a common recognition of the importance of neuroscience research in unraveling the mysteries of the human brain and improving human health.

In the spirit of open communication, the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR) will host the biennial Beijing Brain Conference to provide a platform for neuroscientists across the world to discuss basic research, clinical translation, and technological development.

This year, the inaugural conference is scheduled to be held online from October 24th to 26th, 2020. The conference includes a main forum and 12 sub-forums, with topics covering the circuit basis of cognition, brain diseases, neural computation, neural development, neurotechniques, and resource centers. The conference will include keynote lectures, reports, and panel discussions. Nobel laureates including Thomas C. Sudhof, Edvard I. Moser, and Michael W. Young, in addition to many other well-known experts in the field of brain science, both at home and abroad, have been invited to speak, making this conference a high-level platform for extensive academic communication among Chinese and international researchers, clinicians, and young scholars in the field of brain science and brain-inspired research.

The 2020 CIBR opening ceremony was held on September 10, corresponding with the 36th Annual Chinese Teacher's Day. Dr. Junwen Mao, Director of Research, hosted the event with over 200 students and faculty in attendance, including the CIBR Co-Directors, Professor Yi Rao and Professor Minmin Luo.

Professor Yi Rao delivers a speech to welcome and encourage all students at CIBR.

Prof. Rao welcomed all students and expressed his wishes for their success. “I hope 20 years from now, when you recall the day you came here, you will all agree that it was the right time to join the right platform for the right research direction.”

Professor Minmin Luo introduces recent developments and future plans for CIBR.

In his speech, Prof. Luo described the recent ascent of CIBR in terms of new research teams, infrastructure construction, and external collaborations. CIBR has recently recruited 14 PIs and 7 core facility directors, and will increase the student body from 57 this year to 107 next year, in order to fulfill the research and training needs of this rapidly growing institute. Moreover, the 50,000 square meters of floorspace in new CIBR buildings will also come into service next year, and external collaborations will to continue to increase, going forward. Expressing optimism about the development of CIBR, he added, “You will never regret choosing CIBR after graduating from here five or six years from now”.

Speeches were also delivered by Professor Chen Zhang, Dean of the School of Basic Medical Science, Capital Medical University, and Dr. Tongfei Wang, CIBR PI, both whom welcomed students and shared their experiences in study and research.

The debut of new students recruited in 2020.

The number of new students at CIBR has skyrocketed in 2020 compared with the previous two years. This year we have jointly recruited 39 outstanding graduate students from domestic colleges and universities, including ten PhD students shared with Peking University, three with Peking Union Medical College, four with Beijing Normal University, three with Nankai University, four with China Agricultural University, and 15 (five in Master's Degree programs) with Capital Medical University. Representative new students, seniors, and new postdocs also gave speeches respectively expressing their expectations and ambitions for future research success.

Student representatives deliver speeches during the opening ceremony.

Haiyue Zou, representing new students, praised the innovative potential of this newly established institute, and resolved to make “great advances” here working with her colleagues.

Bingxin Xia, representing senior students at CIBR, encouraged all students to explore and engage in interdisciplinary research based on one's major as well as personal research interests, in order to make substantive contributions to human health. In addition, she exhorted newcomers to ensure the sustainability of their efforts by practicing a strong work-life balance.

As the representative of postdocs, Dr. Kai Gao emphasized the need for perseverance as well as cooperation when facing difficulties in research, and encouraged his peers to enjoy the curiosity and inspiration inherent in scientific exploration.

Seminar Type

Lecture Series on Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Preferred Location

Online Zoom Meeting Link:  https://zoom.com.cn/j/85328263314?pwd=MWhhb3BQM1QxY0wyK1pmY1ZlVlBaUT09

Meeting ID:  853 2826 3314

Password:  091314

Time

10:00-11:30, Friday, August 7th, 2020

Speaker

Huali Wang, MD, PhD

Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry

Chair, Clinical Research Division

Director, Dementia Care & Research Center

Associate Director, Beijing Dementia Key Lab

Peking University Institute of Mental Health

Host

Dr. Dai Zhang

Topic

Early detection of Alzheimer's disease: research advance and translational implications

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease has emerged as a major global public health concern. Among the seven themes outlined in the WHO global action plan, early diagnosis and treatment is essential to secure the support necessary for patients with dementia. However, the etiology of Alzheimer's disease has not been fully established, and no specific guidelines currently exist for early diagnosis. This talk will review current progress toward establishing valid neuropsychological tests, novel biomarker discovery, and development of reliable algorithms for early detection of Alzheimer's Disease. We will also discuss how these newly developed approaches might be applied in clinic with case demonstration.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Wang obtained her Bachelor of Medicine from Peking University (formerly, Beijing Medical University) in 1994, and earned an MD/PhD from Peking University in 2001. She was trained in international mental health research at Harvard Medical School, and in neuropsychology and neuroimaging of dementia at University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Wang is an international pioneer in the clinical management of memory disorders and in building service capacity for dementia care. She established the first dementia caregiver support group in China in 2000 and developed and tested a community-based family caregiver support program in Beijing. Now she directs a training program for community doctors and service providers, and a train-the-trainer program for dementia caregiver support in China. The care model developed by Dr. Wang has been partially adopted by the WHO West Pacific Regional Office to develop a toolkit for community-based dementia care in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Wang currently leads the National Platform on Clinical Dataset and Biobank of Major Mental Disorders. Her research interests include: (1) exploring neuropsychological profiles, blood-based biomarkers, and imaging features for early diagnosis of dementia; (2) developing culturally sensitive care for persons with dementia and their caregivers.

In addition, she has joined the WHO for setting priorities in dementia research, participated in the WHO West Pacific Regional Office advisory board to develop a toolkit for community-based dementia care in low- and middle-income countries, and has been designated by the National Health Commission as the WHO Global Dementia Observatory point person for China. In addition, Prof. Wang is also a technical adviser for dementia care and service for the National Health Committee. She drafted the National Geriatric Mental Health Plan, which is a key element in the 13th Five-Year Plan for Health Aging.

The Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR) was established in March, 2018 by the Beijing Municipal Government and seven institutions in Beijing. Founded to be a pillar of the China Brain Initiative, CIBR aims to support a vibrant interdisciplinary program in neuroscience and its related disciplines, with both basic and applied research focused ultimately on improving human health. CIBR will also take responsibility for coordinating research institutes and managing research programs under the guidance of the China Brain Initiative and Beijing Brain Initiative, making Beijing a global epicenter for neuroscience and artificial intelligence science.

CIBR is now recruiting scientists to lead individual labs and recruiting independent postdoctoral fellows to further their research in a highly innovative and cooperative environment. Prospective scientists are expected to conduct outstanding research in any area of neuroscience or in brain-inspired computing. Applications for positions at multiple levels are welcome.

We are organizing an interactive communication meeting at the 12th FENS Virtual Forum of Neuroscience on July 11-15th, 2020, which is hosted by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and organized by the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) at Glasgow (UK).

You can find us by clicking on our logo on the FENS Virtual Forum homepage, or by internet search using our name, Chinese Institute for Brain Research, or CIBR, as keywords. If you have any questions about CIBR and CIBR recruitment, we are here and waiting for your visit at the following links:

https://virtual-forum2020.kenes.com/en/hall

Welcome to join CIBR and create history here.

Website: http://en.cibr.ac.cn/

Contact: Lubin Tan, PhD (The Assistant to Directors) 

Email: PI_recruit@cibr.ac.cn

Cellphone: +86 188 0101 3744

Seminar Type

Lecture Series on Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Preferred Location

Online Zoom Meeting Link: https://zoom.com.cn/j/84603647228?pwd=WG1mcDlQSTBraG85MEsyblFVditvZz09

Meeting ID: 846 0364 7228

Password: 681620

Time

10:00-11:30, Friday, July 17th, 2020

Speaker

Piu Chan, MD, PhD

Professor 

Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University

Host

Dr. Dai Zhang

Topic

Parkinson's Disease: Critical Issues on Clinical and Translational Research

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and is accompanied by significant social and economic burdens for societies with rapidly growing elder populations due to its high prevalence, high rate of disability, and long disease duration. PD has a multifactorial etiology and is pathologically characterized by selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra due to alpha-synuclein aggregation, which are also found in nerve terminals of multiple body systems. Motor and non-motor symptoms are cardinal signs that present across pre-clinical and clinical disease stages. Although several drugs can improve the motor symptoms and quality of life through dopamine replacement therapy, there is still no cure for PD, nor any objective markers for early diagnosis and monitoring disease progression. Current research primarily focuses on: (1) mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration; (2) biomarkers for early diagnosis and disease progression; (3) neuroplasticity involved in levodopa-induced motor fluctuations and deep brain stimulation, and (4) neuron repair and regeneration.

Speaker Biography

Professor Piu Chan graduated from Hunan Medical College in Changsha in 1983 and became a neurologist after fellowship training. He later acquired his PhD in neurosciences from Sun Yan-Sen University of Medical Sciences in Guangzhou in 1990 followed by postdoctoral training at the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California, USA, where he spent more than 10 years as a senior scientist before returning to Beijing in 1998. Dr. Chan then established the Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Clinic for Parkinson’s disease, which was later incorporated into the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education on Neurodegenerative Disorders, Research and Clinical Center for Parkinson’s Disease of Capital Medical University, Parkinson Disease Center of Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, and Key Laboratory on Parkinson’s Disease of Beijing. This center now accommodates more than 40,000 visits by patients with Parkinson’s disease annually. 

Dr. Chan is an established leader in translational research on neurodegenerative disorders. Collaborating with Dr. Carlie Tanner on several unique cohorts, and in the 1980’s, they were the first to report that environmental exposures are the major risk factors for Parkinson’s disease. He has worked with Dr. J. William Langston to develop non-human primate models of Parkinson’s Disease and dyskinesia. Using microwave technology, he first demonstrated that MPTP causes selective energy impairment in the striatum, leading to neurodegeneration. He has also studied familial and susceptibility genes and identified a variety of biomarkers for Parkinson's Diseases in unique Chinese cohorts for prediction and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. He founded the China Parkinson Alliance of more than 550 medical centers and 2000+ neurologists, and established the first Virtual Hospital for Parkinson’s Disease. He participated in drafting “MDS Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinson’s Disease” and “MDS Research Diagnostic Criteria for Prodromal Parkinson’s disease”. Dr. Chan’s team has participated in the International LRRK2 Consortium and Apple’s mPower projects. He was more recently charged with the establishment of the National Consortium and Big Data Platform for Parkinson and Alzheimer’s diseases by the China Ministry of Sciences and Technology.

In addition to his other accomplishments, Dr. Chan founded the Faculty of Geriatrics of Capital Medical University in 2004, the first of its kind in China, and established the Beijing Longitudinal Study on Aging II cohort for investigating Frailty and Neurodegenerative disorders. He has initiated projects investigating the role of polyphenols (funded by the M. J. Fox foundation) and Traditional Chinese Medicine in two multi-center trials. He has been the Principal investigator for about 20 Phase I-IV clinical trials. He is also an ad hoc consultant for the State Food and Drug Administration of China.

Dr. Chan is currently a Professor and the Department Chair of Neurobiology and Geriatrics and Vice Director of Neurology at the Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University. He also serves as the Director of the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders. He has published more than 300 SCI peer-reviewed papers with 14,770 citations (with an h-index of 57 in Google Scholar), and about 250 peer-reviewed Chinese papers with ~10,000 citations, and served as an editorial board member of more than 15 international journals.

Gliomas are the most common form of brain tumor in adults and the most lethal solid cancer in children younger than 12 years old. Malignant gliomas remain incurable and therefore present several unique challenges for clinicians, radiologists, and translational investigators who aim to improve both diagnosis and prognosis. The targeting of tumor metabolism has re-emerged over the past decade as a viable potential strategy for new cancer therapies. There are several means by which the metabolism of human gliomas have been previously assessed: through the metabolome of plasma collected from the cubital vein; through metabolomics analysis of blood collected from resected cancer tissue or cerebrospinal fluid; through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging; and through assessment of isotope enrichment in glioma tissue after intraoperative infusion with 13C-labeled nutrients. To date, however, the direct measurement of consumption and production of metabolites by gliomas in patients has remained extremely technically difficult.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, the Woo-ping Ge group (woopinglab.org) at CIBR, in conjunction with the Nanxiang Xiong group from Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, developed a novel method for paired analysis of Cancer ARterial-VEnous metabolome, or CARVE, to study tumor metabolism directly from patients.

This method is based on the hypothesis that gliomas consume metabolites from the arterial blood in appreciable quantities, and that these metabolites are present at significantly lower concentrations in venous blood downstream of the glioma. Conversely, metabolites produced and secreted by gliomas accumulate in venous blood downstream of the glioma relative to the arterial supply. Through the comparison of plasma metabolomes between the arterial supply and venous drainage, CARVE can be used to exclude interpatient variation and subsequently identify multiple metabolites that are consumed and produced by gliomas in vivo in patients.

This study represents the first report of the successful collection of blood from an artery and vein specifically upstream and downstream of a tumor in patients for metabolomic analysis to characterize the uptake and consumption of glioma-associated metabolites. In vivo identification of the metabolites or other molecules consumed by gliomas is necessary to fully understand glioma metabolism, and will provide a clear avenue for metabolomic analysis of other cancers in patients or animal models.

SEMINAR TYPE

Lecture Series on Neuropsychiatric Disorders

TIME

14:00-15:30, Friday, June 5th, 2020

PREFERRED LOCATION

Online Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81009084149?pwd=MHJOZGF4MTJ1MHlVemNFSDVwY2pydz09

Meeting ID: 810 0908 4149

Password: 564192

SPEAKER

Xunming Ji, 

MD, PhD, EMBA

Vice-president, Capital Medical University，

Director, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders

TOPIC

Translation from Science to Clinic, Remote Ischemic Conditioning

HOST

Dr. Dai Zhang

ABSTRACT

Sublethal hypoxic or ischemic events can improve the tolerance of tissues, organs, and even organisms from subsequent lethal injury caused by hypoxia or ischemia. This phenomenon has been termed hypoxic or ischemic preconditioning (HPC or IPC) and is well-established in the heart and the brain. This lecture is about HPC and IPC with respect to their translation from basic research to clinic remote ischemic conditioning, especially for the treatment of stroke.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Prof. Xun-ming Ji (MD, PhD, EMBA), as Chief Physician and Doctoral Tutor in Neurosurgery, is the Vice-president of Capital Medical University and the Director of the Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders. He has been elected as a ‘China National Funds for Distinguished Youth Scientist’, the ‘Distinguished Professor of Cheung Kong Scholars Program’, and a State Council Expert for Special Allowance.

Prof. Ji engages in research for stroke screening and prevention, including thrombolysis for acute cerebral infarction, neuroprotective therapy, chronic cerebral ischemia for adaptive protection treatment, and the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral venous disease. He has published more than 500 papers and one book - “Endovascular Intervention for Acute Stroke”. He received seven Provincial-level scientific and technological progress awards, including the First Prize of Medical Science of the Chinese Medical Association and First Place of Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Education.

Dear Colleagues, 

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Carlos Ibáñez has been appointed as the Acting Associate Director for Academic Affairs at the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR), effective on May 1st 2020. 

Dr. Ibáñez has started the process of setting up a research laboratory in Beijing. His key responsibilities as the associate director will be to assist us with developing strategies for operations and future growth, to help coordinate scientific researches among research groups and core facilities, and to promote international collaboration.

Please join us in welcoming Carlos to this exciting new role at CIBR. 

Yi Rao, Ph.D.

Minmin Luo, Ph.D.

CIBR Co-Directors