Zeng Fanyi facts for kids
Zeng Fanyi (Chinese: 曾凡一; pinyin: Zéng Fányī) is a famous Chinese stem cell scientist. She is also a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) medical school. She was born in January 1968.
About Zeng Fanyi
Zeng Fanyi was born in Shanghai, China, in 1968. Her family originally came from Shunde, a place in Guangdong province.
Her father, Zeng Yitao, is also a well-known geneticist. A geneticist is a scientist who studies genes and heredity. Both Zeng Fanyi and her father were students of Tan Jiazhen, who helped start modern genetics in China.
Zeng Fanyi studied at several universities. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science, from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She then earned two more advanced degrees, a medical degree (M.D.) and a Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania. After finishing her studies, she continued to do postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.
In October 2007, Zeng Fanyi joined the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Today, she is the vice-president of the Shanghai Institute of Medical Genetics at SJTU. Her father, Zeng Yitao, is the director-general there. Zeng Fanyi is also the Vice-president of the Shanghai Stem Cell Institute.
Zeng Fanyi's Research
Zeng Fanyi's research mainly focuses on medical genetics and developmental biology. Medical genetics looks at how genes affect health. Developmental biology studies how living things grow and develop.
In July 2009, Zeng Fanyi and her team published an important paper in the science journal Nature. This paper showed for the first time that a whole mammalian body could be grown from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
They used mouse embryos in their study. First, they created iPSCs using a method similar to one developed by another scientist, Shinya Yamanaka. iPSCs are special cells that can turn into many different types of cells.
Next, they created special embryos called tetraploid embryos. They did this by joining two early-stage fertilized embryos together. They then put these special embryos into mice. Some of these embryos grew into full, healthy mice.
Twelve of these mice even mated and had offspring. These baby mice showed no physical problems. This research was a big step forward in understanding how to grow living things from stem cells.
See also
In Spanish: Zeng Fanyi para niños
