Recently Ouyang Qi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) from Peking University (PKU), has been invited to the 89th session of SUSTech Lecture to give a lecture entitled “Reverse Engineering in Synthetic Biology” at Lecture Hall 111 of the library of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). Prof. Xiao Guozhi, Chair of the Department of Biology, SUSTech, presided over the lecture.

Ouyang is a CAS member, Deputy Director of the Center for Theoretical Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, PKU and Deputy Director of the PKU-UC United Center for Quantitative Biomedicine.

Ouyang briefly introduced the basic concept and research situation of reverse bioengineering, shared the method of Boolean dynamics, the network features of dynamics, the computing methods of activation line and inhibition line, how to derive the evolution law of protein, as well as the application of reverse bioengineering. To him, bio-network architecture is special and researchers should make scientific use of quantitative languages to describe the process of biological system evolution.

In the Q&A session, he encouraged the students present with his experience. “To be a scientist, the key is to find your research interests,” he said, adding that “Majors are not most important, it is most important to find your strong desire to explore life and science.”