Yuhong introduced her work conducted in the group of Tim Lynagh to her defense committee, colleagues and family in a beautiful presentation, before discussing her results with opponents Prof. Jette Kastrup from the University of Copenhagen, and Assoc. Prof. Robin Beech from McGill University, Canada. The defense was led by Prof. Ørjan Totland and the committee speared by Assoc. Prof. Aurelia Lewis, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Bergen.
During her time in the Lynagh group, Yuhong explored the diversity of Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors (iGluRs) in the major animal lineages and dissected the molecular basis for their functions, revealing “nature’s view” of iGluRs. Using electrophysiology, she described the phylogenetic relationships of the receptors throughout the animal kingdom and provided an overview of their functional characterization in different phyla. Based on those findings, she also further studied the molecular basis for divergent functions using mutagenesis in iGluR neurotransmitter binding sites. “Yuhong had the most exploratory of any of the projects in my lab, which led to unique technical and personal challenges for her to overcome”, Tim Lynagh explained. “She has made several discoveries, and her accomplishments have laid the technical and intellectual groundwork for numerous future projects in the lab.”
“Yuhong has made several discoveries, and her accomplishments have laid the technical and intellectual groundwork for numerous future projects in the lab.”
- Tim Lynagh
When asked about the highlights and challenges of her time as a PhD candidate, Yuhong mentioned electrophysiology. “It is exciting to see electrical currents when testing certain receptors for the first time”, she said. “At the same time, it is challenging to express proteins in frog oocytes. I did a lot of things to optimize the expression and to get larger currents.”
During her PhD, Yuhong contributed to a publication together with lead author Sandra Seljeset, Oksana Sintova and Hassan H. Harb in the journal Structure. The article, titled “Constitutive activity of ionotropic glutamate receptors via hydrophobic substitutions in the ligand-binding domain”, improved our understanding of neurotransmitter function and opened up new pathways for their study in marine invertebrates.
Joining the Michael Sars Centre for the first time in 2017 as a research intern in the laboratory of Prof. Daniel Chourrout, Yuhong has a background in medicine. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in medicine from Shangdong University in China, and considers going back to this career path in the future. “The PhD was a long process, and finally, I did it. It is exciting now”, she concluded.
