On September 23, 2016, Prof. Yan Ning, a young female scientist from Tsinghua University, gave a lecture on “A molecular movie of the excitation-contraction coupling” at the 81st session of SUSTech Lectures in the Lecture Hall in SUSTech Library, sharing with students how to find out the beauty of biological structure. Vice President Wu Chuanyue presided over the lecture.

As an excellent female scientist in structural biology, Prof. Yan was the winner of HHMI’s First International Early Career Award and Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics. She devoted herself to the research of the structure and mechanism of major membrane protein and the receptor signaling pathways of abscisic acid in plants. She also focused on the research of the structure and mechanism of secondary active transport protein to solve basic problems in the mechanism of transport protein. Prof. Yan has published several papers in major publications such as Science, Nature, and Cell.

During the lecture, Prof. Yan introduced her team’s research of deconstruction of voltage-gated calcium and sodium channels. Prof. Yan also explained the latest breakthrough of their team in the deconstruction of calcium channels,with graphics and animations. Later, she demonstrated the working process of Cav1.1, the first successfully identified voltage-gated calcium channel. The process is known as excitation-contraction coupling (EC coupling).

“That is the beauty of structural biology”, Prof. Yan showed her love and unremitting pursuit of scientific research.

During the Q&A part, teachers, postgraduates, and undergraduates actively discussed with Prof. Yan in terms of some academic questions, creating a lively atmosphere in the Lecture Hall.