Fu Qiaomei, a representative of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is such a person who can't stop. What made her do her best was paleoan

Fu Qiaomei (middle) and students were discussing. Photo provided by the respondent

Get up at five or six o'clock every morning and start to arrange work throughout the day, either in the laboratory or in the conference room, and you must "get done today"... Fu Qiaomei, a representative of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is such a person who can't stop. What made her do her best was paleoanthropology and paleogenetics research. Through ancient DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) technology, Fu Qiaomei was able to find traces of prehistoric human from a pinch of bone meal, a handful of soil, and a piece of human remains, and reveal the genetic characteristics of the population and human evolution characteristics through trace DNA fragments. One of the pioneers of the discipline of

is Fu Qiaomei's doctoral supervisor and this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner Svanter Parbo .

In her eyes, the tutor is a "perseverance and interest-oriented" person who created paleogenomics from scratch. Fu Qiaomei, who has worked in the Parbo research group for many years, is also a scholar driven by curiosity.

When she was a child, she was a child who couldn't stop. "I lived in a free environment when I was a child. I played on the mountains since I was a child and developed a strong interest in nature. This has a lot to do with my later research on ancient DNA." The curiosity of

allowed Fu Qiaomei to find clues about ancient DNA. During her PhD, when she was conducting research on an early modern man 40,000 years ago, she found that the DNA fragments in the remains were seriously contaminated by microorganisms. Only 0.2% of the DNA belongs to humans, and 70% of the modern humans were contaminated. But Fu Qiaomei did not give up these "scrap data", put in a lot of effort to analyze biological information, and designed a lot of experiments, which finally confirmed that one of the great-great-great-great-grandparents of the remains was Neanderthal , which for the first time clarified the intersection between extinct ancient humans and modern humans.

While studying ancient Europeans, Fu Qiaomei was also thinking: What were our ancestors like? After returning to China, she plunged into the study of the prenatal genome of East Asians.

In 2016, Fu Qiaomei was appointed as the director of the Archaeological DNA Laboratory of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2017, she led the team to capture the relatively complete genome sequence of the Pastoral Cave human, which is the first human paleonuclear genome in China and the earliest modern human genome in East Asia to date. In 2020, the research team once again explained the north-south differentiation pattern and migration evolution history of modern populations in China over the past ten thousand years through ancient human DNA. In 2021, they conducted the longest paleogenome study in East Asia, unlocking the genetic map and adaptive gene evolution of East Asian populations in the Ice Age.

"Who am I?" "Where am I from?" "How did I evolve" and other questions are being solved step by step by step by this team.

Fu Qiaomei said that she never regretted her decision to return to China to do research. At that time, domestic research on paleo-human genomics was still quite weak. "If I don't do it, who will do it?" When talking about the past, the Jiangxi girl was extremely firm. "When I went out, I thought about coming back to contribute to the motherland, and never thought about staying abroad. The right to speak in the cutting-edge field depends on my own efforts."

Through years of unremitting efforts, Fu Qiaomei did what she said. In 2021 and 2022, she was invited to publish review articles and comments in the journals of Science and Cell , and reviewed and looked forward to disciplines and technologies for a decade, and made a Chinese voice in the field of ancient human genome research.

"The interesting thing about ancient DNA is that there are always unknowns in the exploration process that are beyond the past. For example, in the past, humans were always believed to evolve in the branch-like shape of trees, but ancient DNA evidence tells us that human history is a cycle of continuous migration and fusion of people. The genes of ancient humans are also affecting us at all times. In-depth exploration of them can help modern people better cope with diseases and environmental changes." When talking about professionalism, Fu Qiaomei always talks endlessly.

Fu Qiaomei is the team leader and has won the " China Youth May Fourth Medal ". This year, she has added the identity of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China."Qiaomei, you are so awesome!" Others always praise her like this, but she feels a different kind of pressure. This pressure comes from the historical mission entrusted by the times to scientific and technological talents.

"The new generation of young scientific researchers can grow in the great era when the Chinese nation becomes stronger, and she is really lucky." Fu Qiaomei told " China Science Daily " that the country has introduced a series of measures for young talents, and many new policies have been implemented, which makes her particularly excited.

"I will shoulder the important task entrusted by the times, continue to tackle the key scientific issue of the origin and evolution of modern people in East Asia, and contribute to building a strong country in science and technology." she said.

Source: China Science Daily