From the Sichuan earthquake to cutting-edge science: how a young Chinese woman is mentoring scientists of the future
- Teenager whose life was changed by 2008 disaster is now one of the country’s leading geneticists
- Liu Yanlu hopes future of medicine lies in ‘safe and effective’ stem cell treatments
Liu Yanlu was a 16-year-old preparing for university life when, on May 12, 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Sichuan in southwest China, killing more than 70,000 people, including more than 5,000 schoolchildren.
Like many young survivors, the disaster shaped her working life. Some chose architecture to design buildings that would survive the region’s quakes, while others, like Liu, from the provincial capital Chengdu, decided to study medicine.
The girl had who started primary school a year early and was fast-tracked into high school because of her academic achievements chose cutting-edge medicine.
After five years of training in biomedical science at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, she graduated and went to the University of California, Los Angeles. By 2018, she had earned a doctoral degree in the subject.
In March, the 27-year-old left the United States to return to Zhejiang University as an assistant professor and is its youngest principal epigenetics investigator.
