Chuan He

He graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. After undergoing his Ph.D. training with Stephen J. Lippard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he worked under Gregory L. Verdine as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. He subsequently became a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago in 2002.

In 2010, He proposed that RNA modifications could be reversible and may have regulatory roles. He and colleagues subsequently discovered the first RNA demethylase that oxidatively reverses N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) methylation in mammalian messenger RNA (mRNA) in 2011. The existence of m⁶A in mRNA was discovered in 1974 in both eukaryotic and viral mRNAs; however, the biological significance and functional role were not known before He’s work. This methylation is the most abundant internal modification in mammalian mRNA. In 2012, two independent studies reported transcriptome-wide mapping of m⁶A in mammalian cells and tissues, revealing a unique distribution pattern. He and co-workers identified and characterized the direct reader proteins for m⁶A, which impact the stability and the translation efficiency of m⁶A-modified mRNA, elucidating functional roles of mRNA methylation. His group also purified the methyltransferase complex that mediates this methylation.

The He laboratory also studies DNA methylation. He invented TAB-seq, a method that can map 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) at base-resolution genome-wide, as well as hmC-Seal, a method that covalently labels 5hmC for its detection and profiling. Together with two other research groups, He and co-workers have revealed the DNA N⁶-methyldeoxyadenosine as a new methylation mark that could affect gene expression in eukaryotes.

• 2003: Searle Scholar Award
• 2005: Beckman Young Investigators Award{{cite web |title=Chuan He |url=http://www.beckman-foundation.org/beckman-young-investigators/chuan-he |website=Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation |accessdate=1 August 2018 |archive-date=1 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801220944/http://www.beckman-foundation.org/beckman-young-investigators/chuan-he |url-status=dead }}
• 2017: Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research{{cite web|url=https://www.mskcc.org/research-advantage/impact/paul-marks-prize-research/2017-prize-winners|title=2017 Prize Winners|publisher=Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center|accessdate= 12 December 2017}}
• 2019: ACS Chemical Biology Lectureship{{Cite web |title=The ACS Chemical Biology Young Investigator Award – Division of Biological Chemistry |url=http://www.divbiolchem.org/awards/acs-lectureships/the-acs-chemical-biology-lectureship/ |access-date=2023-03-14 |language=en-US}}
• 2018: Ray Wu Award{{Cite web |title=Awards |url=https://www.cbisociety.org/awards.html |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=CHINESE BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATORS SOCIETY |language=en}}
• 2023: Wolf Prize in Chemistry[https://wolffund.org.il/home-page/ Wolf Prize in Chemistry 2023]

{{Reflist | refs=

{{cite journal | vauthors = He C | title = Grand Challenge Commentary: RNA epigenetics? | journal = Nat. Chem. Biol. | volume = 6 | issue = 12 | pages = 863–865 | date = November 2010 | doi = 10.1038/nchembio.482 | pmid = 21079590}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Jia G, Fu Y, Zhao X, Dai Q, Zheng G, Yang Y, Yi C, Lindahl T, Pan T, Yang YG, He C | title = N6-Methyladenosine in nuclear RNA is a major substrate of the obesity-associated FTO | journal = Nat. Chem. Biol. | volume = 7 | issue = 12 | pages = 885–7 | date = December 2011 | pmid = 22002720 | pmc = 3218240 | doi = 10.1038/nchembio.687 }}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Dominissini D, Moshitch-Moshkovitz S, Schwartz S, Salmon-Divon M, Ungar L, Osenberg S, Cesarkas K, Jacob-Hirsch J, Amariglio N, Kupiec M, Sorek R, Rechavi G | title = Topology of the human and mouse m6A RNA methylomes revealed by m6A-seq | journal = Nature | volume = 485 | issue = 7397 | pages = 201–6 | date = May 2012 | pmid = 22575960 | doi = 10.1038/nature11112 | bibcode = 2012Natur.485..201D | s2cid = 3517716 }}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Meyer KD, Saletore Y, Zumbo P, Elemento O, Mason CE, Jaffrey SR | title = Comprehensive Analysis of mRNA Methylation Reveals Enrichment in 3' UTRs and near Stop Codons | journal = Cell | volume = 149 | issue = 7 | pages = 1635–46 | date = May 2012 | pmid = 22608085 | pmc = 3383396 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2012.05.003 }}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Wang X, Lu Z, Gomez A, Hon GC, Yue Y, Han D, Fu Y, Parisien M, Dai Q, Jia G, Ren B, Pan T, He C | title = N6-Methyladenosine-dependent regulation of messenger RNA stability. | journal = Nature | volume = 505 | issue = 7481 | pages = 117–120 | date = January 2014 | doi = 10.1038/nature12730 |bibcode = 2014Natur.505..117W | pmid=24284625 | pmc=3877715}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Wang X, Zhao BS, Roundtree IA, Lu Z, Han D, Ma H, Weng X, Chen K, Shi H, He C | title = N6-methyladenosine modulates messenger RNA translation efficiency. | journal = Cell | volume = 161 | issue = 6 | pages = 1388–1399 | date = June 2015 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2015.05.014 | pmc = 4825696 | pmid=26046440}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Liu J, Yue Y, Han D, Wang X, Fu Y, Zhang L, Jia G, Yu M, Lu Z, Deng X, Dai Q, Chen W, He C | title = A METTL3-METTL14 complex mediates mammalian nuclear RNA N6-adenosine methylation | journal = Nat. Chem. Biol. | volume = 10 | issue = 2 | pages = 93–95 | date = 2014 | doi = 10.1038/nchembio.1432 | pmc = 3911877 | pmid=24316715}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Yu M, Hon GC, Szulwach KE, Song CX, Zhang L, Kim A, Li XK, Dai Q, Shen Y, Park B, Min JH, Jin P, Ren B, He C | title = Base-resolution analysis of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the mammalian genome. | journal = Cell | volume = 149 | issue = 6 | pages = 1368–1380 | date = June 2012 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2012.04.027 | pmc = 3589129 | pmid=22608086}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Song CX, Szulwach KE, Fu Y, Dai Q, Yi C, Li X, Li Y, Chen CH, Zhang W, Jian X, Wang J, Zhang L, Looney TJ, Zhang B, Godley LA, Hicks LM, Lahn BT, Jin P, He C | title = Selective chemical labeling reveals the genome-wide distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine | journal = Nat. Biotechnol. | volume = 29 | issue = 1 | pages = 68–72 | date = 2011 | doi = 10.1038/nbt.1732 | pmid=21151123 | pmc=3107705}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Fu Y, Luo GZ, Chen K, Deng X, Yu M, Han D, Hao Z, Liu J, Lu X, Doré LC, Weng X, Ji Q, Mets L, He C | title = N6-methyldeoxyadenosine marks active transcription start sites in chlamydomonas. | journal = Cell | volume = 161 | issue = 4 | pages = 879–892 | date = May 2015 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.010 | pmid=25936837 | pmc=4427561}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Greer EL, Blanco MA, Gu L, Sendinc E, Liu J, Aristizábal-Corrales D, Hsu CH, Aravind L, He C, Shi Y | title = DNA methylation on N6-adenine in C. elegans. | journal = Cell | volume = 161 | issue = 4 | pages = 868–878 | date = May 2015 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.005 | pmid=25936839 | pmc=4427530}}

{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhang G, Huang H, Liu D, Cheng Y, Liu X, Zhang W, Yin R, Zhang D, Zhang P, Liu J, Li C, Liu B, Luo Y, Zhu Y, Zhang N, He S, He C | title = N6-methyladenine DNA modification in Drosophila. | journal = Cell | volume = 161 | issue = 4 | pages = 893–906 | date = May 2015 | doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.018 | pmid=25936838| doi-access = free }}

[http://chemistry.uchicago.edu/faculty/faculty/person/member/chuan-he.html Chuan He Faculty Page at the University of Chicago] chemistry.uchicago.edu Retrieved 07-28-2015

[http://www.hhmi.org/scientists/chuan-he Chuan He Profile at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute] hhmi.org Retrieved 07-28-2015

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• [http://he-group.uchicago.edu/ He Lab at The University of Chicago]

{{Wolf Prize in Chemistry}}

{{ACS Chemical Biology Lectureship}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Chuan}}

Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American biochemists

Category:American geneticists

Category:Biologists from Guizhou

Category:Chemical biologists

Category:Chemists from Guizhou

Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States

Category:Educators from Guizhou

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Category:University of Chicago faculty

Category:University of Science and Technology of China alumni