Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Xinchen Lv

Xinchen Lv, first author of Structural insights into the multivalent binding of the Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T promoter by the CO-NF-Y master transcription factor complex

Current Position: Visiting Student in Dr. Jiamu Du’s Lab at Southern University of Science and Technology

Education: PhD candidate, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Bachelor in Biology, Northeast Normal University

Non-scientific Interests: swimming, hiking

Brief bio: Flowers are beautiful, adaptive and charming. They always inspire me to be as beautiful, charming and adaptive as them. Excepting our ability to enjoy their exquisite splendor, I was always wondering the underlying scientific reasons for flowers’ beauty. Luckily, after receiving my Bachelor’s degree, I joined Dr. Jiamu Du’s lab as a PhD student. Dr. Jiamu Du’s research is focused on understanding the mechanisms and regulation of floral transition, by using a combination of protein crystallography, cryo-EM and biochemistry. It is my great pleasure to conduct research on flowers here, because Dr. Jiamu Du is very nice, inspirational and supportive. Under his supervision, I have solved some structures of essential regulators functioning in floral transition, giving us a better understanding of flower regulation. A flower is a testimony that life is delicate. I hope I could continue my research to help crack enigmatic code of plant reproduction.