Professor Guan Kunliang from University of California San Diego (UCSD) came to Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) this week. He was invited to be a guest lecturer at SUSTech’s School of Medicine. Professor Guan Kunliang spoke in front of a large crowd on the title of “The hippo pathway in cell growth, organ size, and cancer.”

Guan Kunliang is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center at UCSD. He received his B.S. Degree from Hangzhou University in Zhejiang China, and subsequently completed his Ph.D. at Purdue University with Henry Weiner. His post-doctoral work in Jack Dixon’s lab has lead to multiple discoveries, including dual specific phosphatases. Kun-Liang has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the genius award). He has made seminal discoveries in biomedical sciences  spanning a wide range of disciplines, including bacterial and viral pathogenesis, cancer biology, and metabolism. Currently, his laboratory studies signaling mechanisms that control organ size and tumorigenesis, with particular emphasis on the mTOR and Hippo-YAP pathways.

He introduced the research background of the Hippo signaling pathway and elaborated on the research results of his laboratory in the field of Hippo signaling pathway in recent years. He also described the molecular mechanism of how the mutation of Hippo-YAP signaling pathway in certain tumors leads to the occurrence of certain tumors.

Professor Guan Kunliang answered numerous questions following the lecture.