Frontiers in Pharmaceutical Sciences Lecture Series - No. 225

Topic: Technologies for Genomic and Proteomic Analysis of Single Cells

Speaker: Xiaohua Huang (黄晓华)，Prof. of Bioengineering

Department of Bioengineering

Jacobs School of Engineering

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Chair: Prof. Zhishu Huang (School of Pharmaceutical Science, SYSU)

Time: 03:30 PM, Firday, August 21, 2015

Venue: 125 Lecture Hall, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, East Campus, SYSU

Introduction to the speaker:

Dr. Xiaohua Huang did his undergraduate study in chemistry at Sun-Yat-sen University. As a CGP scholar, he did his graduate work with Prof. Steven G. Boxer in the Chemistry Department at Stanford University. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in Biophysical Chemistry, Dr. Huang then decided to move onto to biomedical research and engineering. He did a short postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, and then went to work with Prof. George M. Church at Harvard Medical School, where he developed interest in genomic technology and bioengineering. Upon finishing his postdoctoral training, he took a faculty position at the Department of Bioengineering at UCSD, a top-ranked bioengineering program in the world.

Dr. Huang’s graduate work focused on protein structure, dynamics and folding (Nature Structural Biology. 1994, 1(4):226-9). At Yale, Dr. Huang co-invented the rolling circle amplification (RCA) technology for single-molecule amplification and mutation detection in single cells (Nature Genetics, 1998, 19(3):225-32). The technology has spawned many powerful genomic technologies (e.g. MDA) that are widely used today. While working with George Church at Harvard Medical School, he made another transition into genomic technology development and bioengineering. He has invented and developed several methods and technological platforms for DNA sequencing and proteomic analysis (e.g. US. Pat. Nos. 6,316,229 B1, 8,772,473 B2 and 9,063,133; Lab on a Chip, 2010, 10(22):3084-93, 2015, 15(14):2968-80; J R Soc Interface, 2011, 8(61):1104-13). Over the years, his work has been supported by the US NIH as part of the $1000 genome technology project. The main thrust of Prof. Huang’s research is to develop digital molecular technologies and devices that will enable the single-molecule sequencing and digital counting of all DNA, RNA and protein molecules in single cells, and the application of these technologies to enable precision personalized medicine. The honors Dr. Huang received include a CAREER award from NSF (US) and a Young Investigator award from the American Academy of Nanomedicine.

All are welcome to the lecture!