Meet Yingjun Liu focusing on novel tools for understanding neurodegenerative diseases
The neurobiologist from PR China dreams of a paradigm shift in neurodegeneration research to speed up technological advances in this discipline. Before he joined the Biological Engineering lab of Randall Platt he spent the past seven years at the University of Zurich working on brain aging and human prion disease. Yingjun is very enthusiastic about both his work and Basel, the ease of living, public transport and the different Swiss German dialects.
What did you know about D-BSSE before you came here, and what was your motivation to come to ETH Zurich?
Before I joined D-BSSE, I have known D-BSSE from research news and scientific papers. Many research groups at D-BSSE have developed cutting-edge biotechnologies that are highly relevant to my research field: neurodegenerative diseases. As a scientist working in this field for more than ten years, I see the dilemma shared by the community: old theories have largely failed to foster the development of effective therapies; yet new theories are still in their infancies. One way to revolutionize the field and to generate new insights on the complex pathological processes in neurodegenerative diseases would be to introduce novel tools and technologies in our research, thereby investigating these diseases from completely new angles. ETH Zurich is the top university in continental Europe with a strong tradition on developing and applying state-of-the-art technologies to advance science and medicine, a paradise for researchers who have big dreams.
What were your expectations, and were your expectations met since you arrived in Basel?
Personally, I like to work in an environment that is open, interactive, and full of distinguished minds shaped by different cultures and educational backgrounds. I believe that such kind of environment is the soil for important scientific discoveries. Luckily, I found that within ETH Zurich, D-BSSE offers a working environment that fulfils all my expectations. And there are even more: all my colleagues at D-BSSE are warm, friendly and extremely supportive; the administration staff work in a professional and highly efficient way; a lot of social activities and career-developing courses are offered free of charge for all employees. I am very grateful for having the opportunity to work at D-BSSE!
What were your first impressions...?
I have been living in Switzerland (Zurich) for several years before I join D-BSSE. I enjoy very much the ease of living and public transportation, the beautiful landscape and the varieties of cultural activities offered by governmental and private organizations. In a sense, Basel is very similar to Zurich. However, I found there are more opportunities in Basel to interact with industrial partners. This is crucial, especially when one works on understanding the mechanisms of diseases and developing therapies for curing patients, an enterprise that needs tremendous efforts and collaboration between scientists doing basic research and pharmaceutical companies. The Platt lab is a relatively young group at D-BSSE, full of innovative spirits. Members of the group work in an intensely collaborative and responsible way and are highly supportive to each other. It gives me the feeling of home from the first day I joined the group.
Which research will you pursue at D-BSSE?
I have done research on neurodegenerative diseases for many years. Traditionally, to understand the molecular mechanisms, researchers in my field would pick some candidate genes based on prior knowledge and study the influences of these genes on diseases using genetically modified animal models one by one, which is time-consuming and unavoidably with biases. This approach can effectively expand the existing theories of diseases but is clearly not the best way to make completely new discoveries to the unknown mechanisms. At D-BSSE, I will continue working on brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases but with completely new approaches developed in the Platt lab. For example, in one project, my collaborators and I will use the in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screening technologies to investigate the whole genome simultaneously to identify all genes that can modify the neurodegenerative process and then study novel mechanisms and genes revealed by these screenings in depth. By doing so we will significantly expand our current knowledge on brain aging and neurodegeneration and identify promising new therapeutic targets.
Which private interests do you hope to pursue in Switzerland?
I like travelling, meeting different cultures and being close to nature. Hiking in the breath-takingly beautiful Swiss mountains is a great joy to me. In addition, I am learning German; it will be a lot of fun if I am able to read the original German literature and speak one of the local languages when travelling around Switzerland.
Many thanks Yingjun, welcome to the D-BSSE and all the very best to you and your research!
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering in 2009, Yingjun got enrolled in a prestigious Master-PhD programme at the Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences to study the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) using human patient samples and animal models, with a special focus on the role of glial cells in the regulation of PD-related neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Yingjun obtained his PhD degree in neurobiology in 2015 at this institute. In the same year, Yingjun moved to Switzerland and started his postdoctoral training and later worked as a staff scientist at the Institute of Neuropathology, University of Zurich (UZH), supervised by Professor Adriano Aguzzi. His research was partly funded by a ForschungsKredit research grant from UZH. During his PostDoc in Zurich, Yingjun developed novel model systems to study glial cell functions and their role in the development of prion disease. Yingjun also developed a highly tractable organotypic tissue culture system to model mammalian brain aging ex vivo and discovered a strong acceleration of the brain aging process during prion disease development, which was confirmed to be operative also in vivo in animal models and human prion disease patients. In September 2022, Yingjun joined Professor Randall Platt’s Biological Engineering lab at the D-BSSE, ETH Zurich, continuing his enthusiastic research on neurodegenerative diseases by exploiting state-of-the-art in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screening technologies developed by the Platt lab.
Learn about the Biological Engineering lab led by Randall Platt.