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Lily Y. Jan (center) and Yuh Nung Jan (right), with Yuet Wai Kan (left). Kan also was honored Thursday by the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America with a Lifetime Achievement Award (see news release). Photo/Noah Berger |
Lily Y. Jan, PhD, and Yuh Nung Jan, PhD, both UCSF professors of physiology, biochemistry and biophysics, were asked to present Presidential Award Lectures at the international symposium of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America, held this past week in San Francisco. The high honor recognizes their three decades of leading research on neuron function and development.
The Jans have advanced fundamental understanding of how neuronal activity is regulated and how neurons interact. Their early research led to cloning the first gene for potassium channels in neurons - openings in the cell membrane which control neuron function by regulating the passage of charged ions into and out of the cell. Their discovery that a potassium channel abnormality was the basis for a neurological difference in fruit flies proved to be a model for such abnormalities in humans. They have since cloned a number of potassium channels that control heart rate and neuronal excitability, and have investigated the molecular and cellular basis of how ion channels work, and how they contribute to neuronal signaling and protect neurons and muscles under metabolic stress.
Their research has also focused a great deal on neural development and formation of neuronal connections, aiming to understand at the molecular level the basis for different neuronal cell fates. Their labs also explore the basis for neuronal structure changes during development, particularly the formation of the multi-branching dendrite structures.
The Jans are both Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at UCSF and each is a Lange Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry & Biophysics at UCSF. They have both have been widely recognized, including distinguished alumni awards from CalTech and election to the National Academy of Sciences.
The Jans each presented their lectures on July 20 at the large, international scientific symposium. Lily Jan spoke on "A Novel Mechanism for Trafficking Gap Junction Proteins to the Cell-Cell Border." Yuh Nung Jan presented "The Role of Tumor Suppressor Genes in Dendrite Development."
