Message from The Scientist:
Notable Young Neuroscientist Dies
Xu Liu, who used optogenetics to manipulate memories in mice, has passed away at age 37.
Xu Liu, a newly appointed assistant professor of neurobiology at Northwestern University best known for his work manipulating mouse memories using optogenetics, has died. He was 37.
A native of Shanghai, Liu’s early interest in science stemmed from his collecting centipedes, beetles, and locusts as a child. He earned an undergraduate degree in biology at Fudan University in Shanghai and completed his doctoral research, focused on fruit fly memory, with Ron Davis at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Susumu Tonegawa at MIT, Liu and graduate student Steve Ramirez used optogenetic techniques to identify the neurons involved in encoding fear memories in mice. In a follow-up study, Liu and Ramirez used their understanding of fear memory formation to create a false fear memory of a harmless location. The work generated great scientific and public interest. The team’s two TED talks on this work have generated nearly 1 million views online. Liu and Ramirez were awarded the 2014 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award and were runners-up for Science’s Breakthrough of the Year in 2014. Later research replaced negative memories with positive ones.
“For me, what made [Liu and Ramirez] successful was their fearlessness,” Sheena Josselyn of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto told Smithsonian last year. “They applied the best sort of mind power.”
“We hope that our work can lay the foundations for potential future treatments for memory-related disease,” such as Alzheimer’s disease and PTSD, Liu told Smithsonian.
Liu officially started at Northwestern this month. “Xu was much more than an accomplished and gifted scientist. His colleagues have noted his generosity, his mentorship of students, his genuine friendliness, and his sense of humor,” a release from Northwestern’s neurobiology department noted. “This is truly a great loss for . . . the larger neuroscience community at Northwestern and worldwide.”
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/42200/title/Notable-Young-Neuroscientist-Dies/杰出年轻神经科学家去世
刘旭博士,利用光控基因技术操纵小鼠记忆的科学家近日不幸去世,年仅37岁。
刚刚被美国西北大学神经生物学系聘为助理教授的刘旭博士近日不幸去世,年仅37岁。他最为人知的成果是用光控基因技术操控小鼠记忆。
出生在上海的刘旭从小在收集蜈蚣,甲壳虫和蝗虫的过程中中培养了对科学浓厚的兴趣。 他从上海复旦大学获得了生物本科学位,随后又在美国德州休斯顿的贝勒医学院由Ron Davis 教授指导完成了与果蝇记忆相关的研究课题并获得博士学位。
刘旭在麻省理工学院Tonegawa教授实验室做博士后的阶段,联同研究生Steve Ramirez一起利用光控基因技术发现了编码小鼠恐惧记忆的神经元。 在随后的试验中,刘旭和Ramirez利用他们对小鼠恐惧记忆形成的了解,又成功的在小鼠脑中制造出一个虚假的对无害环境的恐惧记忆。他们的成果引发了科学界和社会巨大反响。他们团队的两次TED演讲在网上创下了将近1百万次的浏览记录。 刘旭和Ramirez为此获得了2014 年度史密森尼美国创新奖, 并在2014年的美国科学突破奖评选中排名第二。 之后,他们在研究中进一步用正面记忆代替了负面记忆。
“在我看来,他们(刘和Ramirez)最成功之处是他们无所畏惧的精神”多伦多儿童医院的Sheena Josslym去年对史密森奖委员会说,“他们将思维力量最大限度地发挥了出来”。
“我希望我们的成果可以为未来发现记忆相关疾病的治疗方法奠定基础,比如老年痴呆症和创伤压力症候群”,刘旭接受史密森奖的采访时提道。
刘旭本月刚刚正式开始他在西北大学的工作。 “旭不光是一个成功而有才干的科学家。 他的同事更是深切感受到了他的慷慨,他对学生的循循善诱,他的诚挚善意和幽默感,”西北大学神经生物学系对刘旭是这样评价的,“这确实是一个巨大损失。。。对西北大学乃至整个神经科学界”。