A Journey to Plant Vacuole Biology Research and Beyond

I am currently the Choh-Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences at the School of Life Sciences (SLS) in The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). I obtained my Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from Simon Fraser University in 1996 under the supervision of Dr. Allison Kermode, and then postdoc training in Plant Cell Biology at Washington State University in 1996-2000 under the supervision of Dr. John C. Rogers. I joined the Department of Biology at CUHK as an Assistant Professor in 2000 and was promoted full professor in 2007. Since 2000, I have trained and graduated 40 Ph.D. students, 18 M.Phil. students and 34 postdocs. Since 2015, with the supported of competitive grants from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong and CUHK matching fund, we have established several advanced electron microscopy (EM)-based and live cell-based imaging shared platforms with in-house technical support and training to promote collaborative research and research excellence with excellent track record nationally and internationally. Our research program at CUHK has been focused on illustrating the molecular mechanisms underlying membrane trafficking, organelle biogenesis and function in the plant endomembrane system as well as its crosstalk with the autophagic pathway with many important findings and discoveries in the field using a combination of cellular, molecular and genetic approaches. More recently, we have also developed and used whole-cell electron tomography (ET) and Cryo-ET/FIB (focused ion beam) technologies with nanometer resolution and close-to-native membrane structures to illustrate the membrane biology of transport vesicles, extracellular vesicles and vacuoles in plants. Here I will first highlight our major findings and contributions in the endomembrane system and then take a journal towards our adventure on vacuole biology research as an example for discussion and reflection on future research development, education and training the next generation of young scientists.