This book presents a major research program on epigenetic mechanisms of cell programming and reprogramming. The program was launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, which was started in October 2008 and concluded at the end of 2016. It first summarizes the epigenetic research plans and the current situation of epigenetic research in China and the international frontier. With the application of interdisciplinary research methods, the book discusses the development trends of epigenetic research, such as mechanisms of establishment and maintenance of epigenetic information and epigenetic regulation on reproduction and development. It also presents a variety of research achievements. For example, the discovery of new epigenetic regulators and chromatin remodulaters and their biological functions and mechanisms are highlighted. Several regulation mechanisms of cell differentiation and trans-differentiation are discussed, especially the discovery of the key factors to promote the trans-differentiation of somatic cells to hepatocytes. In addition, this book puts forward some key academic fields with increasing importance, such as biochemistry, cell biology, and clinical medicine. Given its scope, the book is of interest to researchers who work in cell biology, biochemistry, structural biology, bioinformatics, clinical medicine, and other related fields.
Professor Gang Pei was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999 and academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 2001. He is now the chairman of the Chinese Society of Cell Biology, vice chairman of the Chinese Medicine Globalization Alliance, chief editor of Cell Research, and editorial board member of various international academic journals. He also served as a member of the fourth and fifth expert advisory groups of the national key basic research and development plan (973 Plan), the convener of the first expert group of the national major scientific research plan of "stem cell research," and a member of the expert group of the national major infrastructure platform construction. He has long been engaged in cell signal transduction research and has published more than 100 research papers in international academic journals. He won the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 1996, the "Outstanding Young Scholar Award" of Qiushi Science and Technology Foundation in 1997, the Heliang Heli Science and Technology Progress Award in 1999, the second prize of the National Natural Science Award in 2002, the first prize of Shanghai Natural Science Award in 2006, the second prize of the National Natural Science Award in 2007, the Chen Jiageng Life Science Award in 2010, and the Tan Jiazhen Life Science Achievement Award in 2011.
