To promote international academic exchange and scientific research collaboration, on the morning of November 11, 2025, the Ningbo Academician Center hosted the fifteenth lecture in the "Drug Discovery Technology and Life Health Forum" series. This event specially invited two world-renowned scholars from Johns Hopkins University in the United States—Professor Sarah A. Woodson and Professor Steven E. Rokita—to deliver invited presentations. Faculty members, researchers, and graduate students from the Ningbo University Institute of Drug Discovery Technology and related colleges attended the lectures.
RNA Structural Evolution and Molecular Regulation
Professor Sarah A. Woodson, T.C. Jenkins Professor of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University and former President of the RNA Society, delivered an academic presentation titled "Modular control of bacterial stress response by small non-coding RNA and the Hfq chaperone."
Professor Woodson has long been engaged in research on RNA folding, ribozyme kinetics, and RNA-protein complex assembly, making pioneering contributions in the fields of co-transcriptional folding mechanisms and Hfq-sRNA complex regulation.
In her presentation, Professor Woodson used vivid examples to demonstrate the mechanisms by which small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) and their chaperone protein Hfq regulate gene expression, revealing how RNA forms functional conformations within complex energy landscapes. She noted that the dynamic folding pathways of RNA structures and their coordinated regulation with chaperone proteins represent an important bridge in the evolution of life's molecular networks from primitive systems to modern regulatory systems.
The presentation content was profound and highly inspiring, generating tremendous interest and in-depth discussion among the audience.
Chemical Origins of Iodide Cycling
Subsequently, Professor Steven E. Rokita, Professor of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University and internationally renowned expert in nucleic acid chemistry and bioorganic mechanism research, delivered an academic presentation titled "The Origins of Iodide Salvage in Humans."
Professor Rokita systematically expounded on his team's latest achievements in research on the mechanism of iodotyrosine deiodinase (IYD), revealing the enzyme's critical role in maintaining human iodide cycling and thyroid hormone metabolism.
From the perspectives of chemical biology and evolutionary biochemistry, he analyzed the formation and dehalogenation mechanisms of halogenated compounds in living organisms and proposed a chemical origin model for the iodide recycling system. The presentation content integrated cutting-edge achievements in bioorganic chemistry, enzyme catalytic mechanisms, and environmental evolutionary chemistry, providing new research perspectives for understanding the chemical basis of life element cycling.
Deepening Exchange and Expanding Cooperation
The presentations by both professors were rich in content and profound in academic thought, fully demonstrating the latest advances in international frontier scientific research. Following the presentations, Professors Woodson and Rokita engaged in in-depth exchanges with Ningbo University researchers on topics including RNA evolution, nucleic acid chemistry, and enzyme catalytic mechanisms.
This event not only deepened faculty and students' understanding of RNA molecular regulation and chemical evolutionary mechanisms but also laid a solid foundation for cooperation between Ningbo University and Johns Hopkins University in the fields of chemical biology, origins of life, and drug discovery and development.
