On November 24th, 2017, Dr. Yang Zhao from Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University was invited to participate in the "Double Lake Biomedical Grand Lecture Series ", presented a report "Harnessing Chemically -induced Cell Fate Reprogramming for Cardiac Regeneration ". Professors and students from Medical Research Institute, College of Life Sciences, School of Basic Medical Sciences and other universities in Wuhan also actively participated in this wonderful academic exchange programme.

Dr. Zhao is currently a research fellow at Peking University Institute of Molecular Medicine and Peking University-Tsinghua Life Science Joint Center, focusing on the development of new technologies to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and somatic cell reprogramming and the molecular mechanisms of cell fate regulation. The most representative achievement of researcher Yang Zhao is to establish a new technology of somatic cell reprogramming induced by small molecule compounds (non-genetic manipulation) together with the partners. Relevant research results have been published in internationally renowned journals such as Science, Cell and Cell Stem Cell.

After the seminar, these graduate students actively raised their own questions and ideas. Dr. Zhao also gave detailed answers. He also conducted in-depth discussions with Prof. Hudan Liu, Prof. Haojian Zhang, Prof. Qiang Chen, Prof. Wei Jiang, as well as professors from other universities in Wuhan.