Huazhong University of Science and Technology - University of Birmingham

Medical Academic Exchange Series of

China-UK Medical Symposium （1）

On May 12th, 2021, at 3 PM Beijing time and 8 AM London time, the China-UK Medical Symposium (1) was successfully held online at the ZOOM Virtual meeting platform which was supported by the Office of International Affairs, HUST.  Mr. Zhou from the Office of International Affairs and Mrs. Yin and Mrs. Han, who are in charge of foreign affairs of our school, gave great support to this academic activity from various aspects such as organizing, publicizing and applying the online conference platform. The online symposium was hosted by Mr. Zhu Houze from the School of Basic Medicince. Dr. Daniel Fulton, a young teacher from the School of Medicine of the University of Birmingham, and Dr. Pei Lei, from the School of Basic Medicine, delivered excellent academic lectures on behalf of UK and China respectively. Currently, Dr. Pei is working as a visiting researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is supported by HUST Overseas training program for outstanding young teachers. Teachers and students from the two countries also actively participated in the online academic activities through computers and mobile phones (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Dr. Daniel Fulton (top left) from the School of Medicine of the University of Birmingham and Dr. Pei Lei (top right) from the School of Basic Medicine of the University of Birmingham delivered academic lectures to the graduate students (bottom right) through ZOOM virtual meeting platform.

The topic of Dr. Daniel Fulton’s lecture was 3D analysis of oligodendrocytes myelination, injury and plasticity in organotypic brain slice culture (Figure 2). In vivo imaging in mouse neocortex has revealed the dynamic behaviour of glial cells. Microglial processes constantly survey the local environment, while oligodendrocyte (OL) differentiate and myelinate axons in response to sensory stimuli. However, in vivo observations are limited to outer neocortical regions falling within the reach of 2-photon imaging, and information on glial behaviours in deep lying brain regions remain unknown. In this talk, Dr. Daniel described how his group uses organotypic slice cultures to image OL behaviours in deeper lying regions including cerebellar white matter and deep neocortical grey and white matter. He presented his recent findings on activity-dependent myelination, and describe a novel method they are using to live-image myelination in subcortical white matter.

Figure 2. Dr. Daniel Fulton is delivering the lecture. His topic is 3D analysis of oligodendrocytes myelination, injury and plasticity in organotypic brain slice culture.

Then Dr. Pei Lei gave a talk on his recent work on the central mechanism of ketamine general anesthesia (Figure 3). Ketamine is the most unique anesthetic agent used today. With considerably diverse molecular targets and neurophysiological properties, ketamine’s effects on the central nervous system in general anesthesia remain incompletely understood. In this talk, Dr. Pei introduced his recent study on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ketamine general anesthesia. He used different approaches demonstrated that the PKR2 neurons in anterior part of paraventricular nucleus (aPVT) modulates wakefulness from ketamine general anesthesia. 

Figure 3. Dr. Pei Lei is delivering the lecture. His topic is the role of PVT PKR2 neurons in ketamine general anesthesia.

After the lectures, Dr. Fulton and Dr. Pei had a brief exchange of their ideas, and they were eager to carry out further cooperation in the field of both teaching and scientific research in the future based on their own studies. Special thanks for the support of the Office of International Affairs of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK, and for the support of HUST Overseas training program for outstanding young teachers.