History

The school of life sciences of Lanzhou University has a long history, which could be traced back to 1946. Prof. Xin Shuzhi, Prof. Dong shuangqiu, and Prof. Chang Linding established the Department of Botany and the Department of Zoology, which were later merged into the Department of Biology in 1951. The school of life sciences of Lanzhou university was founded in 1999 on the basis of Department of biology. At present, the school of life sciences owns two departments and three centers: the Department of Plant Science and Cell Biology, the Department of Zoology and Biomedical Sciences, the Core Facility for Life Sciences, Core Facility for Undergraduate Education, and Center for Administration and Services. In addition, school of life sciences carries out researches based on State Key Laboratory of Grass Seed Innovation and Grassland Agroecosystem, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cell Activities and Stress Adaptation, Key Laboratory of Biomonitoring and Biorestoration for Environmental Pollution of Gansu Province, and the Key Laboratory of Gene Editing for Breeding of Gansu Province, to support national strategies for ‘Seed industry revitalization’ and ‘Life and health’.

Staff

The school currently has 134 faculty members, including 95 full-time teachers (34 professors, 10 junior research fellows, 40 associate professors and 11 lecturers), 24 laboratory technicians and 15 Party affairs and administrative logistics staff. The faculty members include one National Distinguished Expert, three Yangtze River Scholar Professors, one winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, one winner of the Innovation Talent Promotion Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, one winner of Yangtze River Young Scholar, two winners of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, seven winners of Education Ministry's New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Plan, one Innovation Research Team of Yangtze River Scholars of the Ministry of Education, and one Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Discipline Innovation (111 Center).

Education

Currently, there are 1132 students in the school, including 544 undergraduate students, 330 Master students, and 201 PhD candidates, 57 international students. In addition, 34 postdocs are registered in the school of life sciences.

School of life sciences offers three undergraduate majors: Biological Science, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics. The undergraduate education programs are based on "National Science Basic Scientific Research and Teaching Talent Training Base (Biology)" "National Life Science and Technology Talent Training Base (Biotechnology)" " National Plan for Training Top Students in Basic Disciplines 2.0 Base (Biology)", Strengthening Basic Disciplines Plan (Biology), National Biological Experimental Teaching Demonstrating Center, and National Biological Field Practice Base.

School of life sciences was one of the first batch of doctoral and master's training and degree awarding units in China. The school offers seven PhD majors (Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biophysics, and Genetics) and nine Master majors (Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, Developmental Biology, Physiology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biophysics, and Genetics). The Plant and Animal Science, Biology and Biochemistry are in top 1% of the world in ESI International Disciplines Ranking. Biology was rated as B+ in the fourth round of national discipline evaluation.

Scientific Research

Studies carried out in the school include but not limited to regulation mechanism of animal and plant growth and development, the mechanism of biological adaptation to the environment, biodiversity protection, microbial engineering, polypeptide drugs, gene editing and biological breeding. These cut-edge researches constantly make new contributions to the development of national scientific and technological innovation. A number of high-level research results have been published in the international top journals of the field such as Cell Research, Nature Plants, PNAS, Plant Cell, Brain, Nature Communications, PLoS Genetics, Development, Plant Physiology, Plant Journal, Molecular Plant, and New Phytologist.

Alumni

The alumni of the school are well-known for their diligence and strong ability in scientific research and innovation. More than 20 alumni have been elected as the academicians of Chinese academy of sciences (CAS), scholars of the Yangtze River Program, winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, and the scholars of 1000 people program. A number of alumni hold faculty positions overseas, including Prof. Wang Zhiyong at Stanford university and Pei Zhenming at Duke university. Outstanding alumni also include Prof. Shu Hongbing at Wuhan University, Prof. Chong Kang at CAS Plant Institute, Prof. Yang Weicai at CAS Genetic and Developmental Institute, Prof. Xue Yongbiao at Beijing Genomics Institute and Prof. Zhang Lixin at CAS Plant Institute.

Facing the great development opportunities and challenges, school of life sciences of Lanzhou University will closely follow the strategies and major needs of national seed industry revitalization, life health, and biodiversity protection. The school will strive to increase innovation ability in the scientific research, strengthen connotation construction, improve the quality of talent cultivation, carry out exchanges and cooperation in life sciences, and build a world class high-level teaching and research base.

Aug 2022