AWARDEE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES AND MATERIA MEDICA PRIZE

LIU XINYUAN

 Abstract

Liu Xinyuan, Molecular Biologist, was born in November, 1927 in Hunan Province，China. He graduated from Department of Chemistry，Nankai University in 1952 and completed his master thesis in 1963 at Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry (SIB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), then was assigned to work in this institute till 2000.He went to USA and worked as a visiting scientist (1983-1984) in Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. Now he is a senior researcher and professor in the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, CAS.

Many projects had been carried out in his lab: 1.Structrue-function of RNA: He firstly found the rare bases in high molecular weight RNA(rRNA); 2.Synthesis of RNA: In the total synthesis of yeast Ala-tRNA, he developed an enzymatic method to synthesize several oligoN with rare base which could not be succeed by chemical methods; 3.Genetic engineering:Expression of γ-interferon (IFN-γ) reached high level up to 60%-80% of total bacterial proteins, which was hardly occurred in literature and was selected as one of the 10 top achievements of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1990;4.Mechanism of IFN-Action: Discovered many new functions of the interferon mediator 2'-5'A and proved the existance of its receptor, the firstly found receptor of an oligoN in the world; 5.Analgesic effect of Interleukin-2: Discovered the analgesic effect of IL-2 and explored this anti-nociceptive effect by only simply injection of IL-2 gene into subarachnoid space. They found IL-2 could bind to the opioid receptor, which was the first time in the world to provide substantial data for the regulatory effect of an immune molecule on the funcrion of nerve system;6.Signal transudation:This had been the “95" key project of CAS. More than ten excellent papers have been published in the international famous Journals; 7.Gene Therapy of Parkinson's Disease: Good results have been already published in famous journals such as “Human Gene Therapy", etc.; 8.Gene-virus therapy of cancer: This is a new strategy for cancer treatment which was recently been developed by Prof. Liu and should have good prosperity in theory and practice.

In the above research, more than 270 papers had been published in famous domestic and international Journals and seven volumes of the Xin-yuan Liu's Collected Papers had been edited. He has got more than 30 awards and honors, most of them were the first or second prizes of scientific research, showing that he is an outstanding scientist in China. Therefore he had been elected the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991, Foreign Academician of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1992, and Academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 2001. Now he has been laureated three academicians from different academy of sciences.