On 7th November, the International Symposium on Organelle and Stress Biology, co-hosted by School of Agriculture and Biology (SAB) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), the Partner Group on Organelle and Stress Biology (SAB) of SJTU, and the Chinese Society for Plant Biology, was successfully held at SAB, SJTU on site and at online platform Zoom. More than 500 scholars from home and abroad took part in the Symposium online, and more than 150 teachers and students from all over the country participated on site. Meanwhile the Max Planck Partner Group on Organelle and Stress Biology was also officially launched. Prof. Xue-Min Xu, Vice President of SJTU, Ms. Shang-Yan He, Director of the International Cooperation Division of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM), and Prof. Hong-Wei Xue, Dean of the School of Agriculture and Biology (SAB), attended and delivered speeches at the Symposium and the inauguration ceremony, the later being presided over by Assoc. Prof. Guo-Zhang Wu, the Chinese Representative of the Partner Group.

 

At the inauguration ceremony of the Partner Group, Prof. Xue-Min Xu, Vice President of the SJTU, congratulated the successful organization of the Symposium and the establishment of the Partner Group via Zoom, and expressed the support and expectation for the future work of the Partner Group.

 

Remarks by Vice President of SJTU, Prof. Lisa Xu

 

 

Ms. Shang-Yan He, Director of the International Cooperation Division of STCSM delivered a speech, recalling the history of cooperation between the STCSM and various academic and educational organizations in Germany, and regarding the Max Planck Society as the “Cradle of the Nobel Prize,” which has trained a large number of outstanding scientists. She expressed the hope that SJTU would promote the scientific, technological, and educational cooperation between China and Germany with the develpment of the Partner Group.

 

Remarks by Director of the International Cooperation Division of STCSM, Ms. Shang-Yan He

 

 

Prof. Hong-Wei Xue, Dean of SAB, gave a speech on the inauguration ceremony. He extended warm welcom to the guests and scholars attended online and offline, and briefly introduced the background of the establishment of the Partner Group, its cooperation foundation, and future research directions. He also shared his study experiences in Germany 2 decades ago, hoping the positive relationship of scientific and research cooperation would be carried on and further developed, and showed SAB’s support for the Partner Group.

 

Remarks by Dean of SAB, Prof. Hong-Wei Xue

 

 

The German representative of the Partner Group, Director of Max-Planck Institue for Molekular Physiology (MPI-MP), Prof. Ralph Bock, delivered a speech through Zoom. He introduced the Partner Group program first, which is sponsored by the Max Planck Society to support excellent young scientist who have performed well when working at Max Planck Society to establish their own labs in their homelands, and will soon develop into a leading program in related field. Prof. Bock also confirmed the superb work performance that Assoc. Prof. Guo-Zhang Wu had showed when working at MPI. He hoped that they would maintain the positive cooperation relationship through the Partner Group.

 

Remarks by Director of MPI-MP, Prof. Ralph Bock

 

 

The Chinese representative of the Partner Group, Assoc. Prof. Guo-Zhang Wu, first showed his appreciation for the co-sponsorship of MP Society and SJTU. He briefly introduced the research areas of Organelle and Stress Biology, the main study directions of the Partner Group. He hoped that the Partner Group would work actively as a research center in the field of Orangalle Biology, and function as a platform to greatly promote the development of the field.

 

Remarks by the Chinese representative of the Partner Group, Assoc. Prof. Guo-Zhang Wu

 

 

In the end, the Director of International Cooperation Division of STCSM, Prof. Peng Luo, Director of the International Affairs Division of SJTU, Prof. Hong-Wei Xue, Dean of SAB, Mr. Chen-Hao Li, Investigator at International Cooperation Division of STCSM, and Assoc. Prof. Guo-Zhang Wu, representative of the Partner Group, jointly witnessed the inauguration ceremony.

 

The inauguration ceremony

 

 

Several prominent scholars were invited to give speeches on the Syposium, including Prof. Klaas van Wijk from Cornell University, Prof. Ralph Bock, Academcian of Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften and Director of MPI-MP, Rosa Lozano-Duran and Chanhong Kim both Researchers from Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology (PSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Researcher Dong Li from Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Researcher Zhao-Sheng Kong from Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Thomas Pfannschmidt from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover. They talked about the cutting-edge research development in the field of Organelle and Stress Biology, and the future research of cell biology.

 

Prof. Ralph Bock, Academcian of Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften, gave the presentation on “Intra- and intercellular travel of plastid DNA: mechanisms and applications” via Zoom, showed the innovative research results of his research team on gene, genome, and horizontal gene transfer, and their successful application in biotechnology. The presentation aroused the enthusiastic response and discussion among the scholars, teachers, and students participanted.

 

Presentation by Prof. Ralph Bock, Academcian of Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften

 

 

Researcher Dong Li from Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences gave a presention on “High-speed long-term super-resolution imaging of intracellular organelle interactions,” which showed his research team’s innovative findouts in super-resolution imaging of cells, and was well received by the scholars on site.

 

Presentation by Researcher Dong Li from Institute of Biophysics, CAS

 

 

Prof. Klaas van Wijk from Cornell University lectured on “Chloroplast Proteostasis & the Clp protease system,” which introduced the latest research results of the function, substrate selection and regulation mechanism of the protein enzyme CLP complex in chloroplasts.

 

Prof. Klaas van Wijk from Cornell University giving the lecture via Zoom

 

 

Researcher Zhao-Sheng Kong from Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered the lecture on “Organelle interaction network in root nodule symbiosis,” which explained the most recent research progress of his team in the symbiotic nitrogen fixation of root nodules and the interaction of this in cell organelle.

 

Researcher Zhao-Sheng Kong from Institute of Microbiology, CAS delivering the lecture

 

 

Researcher Rosa Lozano-Duran from Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology(PSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences made a report on “Plasma membrane-to-chloroplast communication: learning from viruses,” which presented her research team’s findouts on double localization of virus C4 protein in chloroplast and cell membrane and its evolution with plant immune system.

 

Researcher Rosa Lozano-Duran from PSC,CAS making the report

 

 

The experts presented a wonderful academic banquet for the Symposium. The scholars on the scene actively interacted online and offline, sharing questions, and creating an active academic atmosphere. They discussed the development and future research directions of organelle and stress biology. The Symposium not only strengthened the exchanges and cooperation between SJTU’s and other botanical disciplines from domestic and foreign institutions, but also promoted the extensive application of this research in basic biology and crop genetic improvement, etc. , which  played an important role in promoting the basic research of organelle biology of SJTU.