Source: Office of International Cooperation and Exchange
Written by: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shenzhen)
Photo by: Liang Junming
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On November 7, 2017, the 18th Session of Nobel Laureates Series Lectures at Sun Yat-sen University organized by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, the Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of Guangdong Province, and Sun Yat-sen University was held in Swasey Hall on Guangzhou South Campus. Professor Mario Capecchi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007, was invited to give a lecture entitled “Gene Targeting in the 21st Century”.
The lecture was hosted by Professor Deng Wenbin, Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shenzhen) at Sun Yat-sen University. A letter of congratulation was sent by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. About 300 faculty and students from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shenzhen), School of Medicine, School of Life Sciences and The Sixth Affiliated Hospital attended the lecture.
Professor Xiao Haipeng, Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University, delivered a welcome speech and expressed the hope that Professor Capecchi would join the newly built Shenzhen Campus and contribute to the “double first-class” construction at the University. He also presented the certificate of honorary professor of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shenzhen) to Professor Capecchi.
During the lecture, Professor Capecchi used a vivid image and video to introduce the causal role for defective microglia in OCD-spectrum disorders. He also showed us a lot about the systematic analysis of the mouse gene. In the Q&A session, Prof. Capecchi won a burst of applause by answering students' and teachers' questions with patience and care.
Professor Mario Capecchi is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method to create mice in which a specific gene is turned off, known as knockout mice. He shared the prize with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics and Biology at the University of Utah School of Medicine.