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SHORT BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH: Dr. Baisong Lu was born and raised in Hunan, a southern Province of China. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in biology from Beijing Normal University in 1991. He attended graduate school at Chinese PLA Medical Institute in molecular genetics in the same year. Upon graduation, he accepted a research position with Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. Since 2000 he received postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School (2000) and Baylor College of Medicine (2000-2003). Then he ran his own lab as an associate professor at Beijing Institute of Biotechnology from 2003 to 2005. Beginning in January 2006 he worked as a Research Associate at Baylor College of Medicine. Shortly after that he joined the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine as an Instructor. Dr. Lu is the author of more than twenty peer-reviewed papers and the inventor on a patent. SYNOPSIS OF AREA OF INTEREST: Dr. Lu’s research interests include regulation of male germ cell development and modification of rat genome through germ cell manipulation. DETAILED AREA OF INTEREST: Germ cell development is a complicated and tightly regulated process. Dr. Lu is interested in defining the roles of genes involved in this process. One of his works is to determine the gene mutated in Germ Cell Deficient, gcd, mouse and to define its role in early germ cell development. Through working with Dr. Colin Bishop, he found that Fancl/Pog was the gene underlying the gcd mutation. FANCL deficiency leads to inefficient PGC proliferation rather than abnormal PGC migration. Smaller numbers of early germ cells in gcd mice delayed the normal spermatogenesis, but in some strains the fertility was restored after the germ cells eventually populated the tubule epithelium. His other works include the discovery of a novel male germ-cell specific gene network consisting of gametogenetin (Ggn), gametogenetin binding protein 1 (Ggnbp1), gametogenetin binding protein 2 (Ggnbp2), and ornithine decarboxylase antizyme 3 (Oaz3). He showed that Ggn encoded proteins interacting with protein products of Ggnbp1, Ggnbp2 and Oaz3. These genes are essentially male germ-cell specific, and are expressed mainly in late spermatocytes or round spermatids. He further showed that several of the proteins from this gene network associated with intracellular membrane. He proposed that this gene network plays a role in acrosomal biogenesis. Another aspect of his research is to find novel and efficient ways to modify the rat genome so that more rat mutants could be available for various kinds of medical research. Now that he is at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, he anticipates interesting projects on regeneration of the male germ cells. PUBLICATIONS: |
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| 336.713.7293 | regenmed@wfubmc.edu © 2006 Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine |
