More than 160 people attended the 2014 Yearly Conference of BIOPIC on Dec. 16 held at Hongya Hall of Shaoyuan Conference Center.

By the invitation of Professor Sunney Xie, Professor Robert Singer gave the keynote speech. Robert Singer is an internationally renowned biophysicist, and a member of American Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His lab seeks to understand the expression and movement of mRNA from transcription through degradation and the effect that defects in these processes have on health. They are developing methods to label RNA in fixed and living cells using fluorescent probes and develop microscopy techniques and image analysis algorithms to visualize and quantify many mRNAs simultaneously. Using these technologies, they can observe single mRNAs localizing to cytoplasmic compartments such as the leading edge of a fibroblast, the bud tip of yeast or the axonal process of neurons and follow these single mRNAs from transcription, nuclear export through translation and degradation. Because these techniques yield quantitative fluorescence data, they are able to apply mathematical modeling to test mechanistic hypotheses.

Professor Sunney Xie gave the yearly overview of BIOPIC, covering every aspect of developments, including recruiting, funding, core facility constructions, education, academic performance, etc. In his report, Professor Xie thanks members of BIOPIC for the great efforts they they have made during the past year.

BIOPIC PIs then presented the major highlights of their groups’ progresses as well as their research plans in 2015.

About 30 postdocs and senior graduate students of BIOPIC presented their posters in the poster session in the afternoon.

More than 160 faculty members, researchers, postdocs and students attended the conference. Professor Song Gao, Provost of Peking University, attended the conference and congratulated BIOPIC on the accomplishments in 2014 and wished them a most happy and fruitful year in 2015.