Chonghua Ren

(1) Transcriptional regulation of insect limb regeneration

Regeneration of tissues and organs is one of the most fascinating phenomena in biological research, and has also been listed as one of the 125 cutting-edge scientific problems in the world by the journal Science. Limb regeneration is a common phenomenon in insects and most of them have strong regenerative ability. Studying the transcriptional regulation mechanism of insect limb regeneration can provide reference for the process of vertebrate regenerative biology.

(2) Epigenetic function in insect development and limb regeneration

Tissue development and regeneration involve many biological processes such as gene expression and cell fate determination, and epigenetic (histone and DNA modifications) plays an important role in tissue regeneration as a key factor regulating gene expression. We aim to explore the roles of epigenetic in development and regeneration.

(3) Insect gene editing and functional studies.

Through the establishment of insect CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology platform, the function of key genes in tissue development and regeneration can be studied under the condition of gene knockout and knockin.