At Professor Xiaolong Sun’s invitation, Professor Youjun Yang from the East China University of Science and Technology, visited BEBC on 10th Jan., 2019 and delivered a lecture entitled “Molecular Engineering on Xanthene Dyes ”in the 308 meeting room in the School of Life Science and Technology.

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Yang introduced the history of fine chemicals development about dyes. Subsequently, the topic concentrated on progress of design, development and potential biological applications of a series of near-infrared xanthene dyes invented by their team. In addition, he detailed the development of sensitive pH fluorescent probes, through the ingenious molecular structure design, to achieve rapid fluorescence responses in a small range of pHs. Besides, he demonstrated their recent work on chemical synthesis and antibacterial application of new xanthene dyes. The lecture was impressive and informative which displayed the prospects of solving biological problems through creating new substances and new methodologies, from the engineering point of view.

At the end of the lecture, Prof. Yang answered the questions from the young faculties/students and also shared his personal experiences on doing research and leading a team. There was a great discussion between Prof. Yang and the audiences from BEBC and department. After that, he was invited to visit the labs of BEBC.

Yang Youjun is a professor at the School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, and a doctoral tutor. In 2002 and 2007, he received a bachelor's degree from China University of Science and Technology and a doctoral degree from Louisiana State University, respectively. He did his postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin from 2007-2010. He was awarded the Shanghai Youth Science and Technology Enlightenment Talents Program (2013), East China University of Science and Technology President Award (2017), Czarnik Young Scientist Award (2018), and Excellent Youth Fund of NSFC (2018). As a first /corresponding author, he published some papers in the prestigious journals such as JACS (4 articles), Nat. Commun., Angew Chem., PNAS, Anal. Chem. (5 articles) and in other high-impact journals in this field.