Westlake University recently hosted the second Westlake Female Scientist Development Forum and the 2023 Westlake Women In Science Award Ceremony. The inaugural recipients of the new Westlake Outstanding Postdoctoral Women awards were announced at the event.

We talk to Lu Xu, one of these deserving award winners, in honor of Women's History Month and to recognize the significant role women are playing in the pursuit of science and technology.

Xu is a postdoctoral fellow in Dan Yang's research group at the School of Life Sciences. She has long been engaged in the research and development of drugs and novel biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, affect a wide range of patients. China has more than 140 million diabetics, the world's largest number of people suffering from the disease. Early diagnosis and treatment of such diseases remains difficult due to the complex pathogenesis. Xu hopes that through her research, small molecular probes can be used to find new targets for metabolic diseases and overcome the challenges in early diagnosis and the many side effects of long-term medication.

Q: What are the goals of your research?

A: To discover more relevant mechanisms and new biomarkers about metabolic diseases, and then hope to apply them to future diagnosis and treatment. Metabolic diseases are inherently complicated. For example, as we know, diabetic fatty liver includes cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

The number of cases of metabolic diseases in China is very high, and its treatment is actually very difficult. In addition, the reason for this is very uncertain, it may come from congenital genes, or it may be acquired due to dietary reasons. We now hope to explore these questions and better predict the development of the disease. If we can do this, we can better prevent the progression of the disease.

Some of our preliminary results have already provided some clues, and now we want to further dig into some newly discovered proteins and their mechanisms of metabolic diseases.

Q: This month is Women’s History Month. As a woman in science, have you faced much discrimination in your work and research? 

A: As for the research, I always think that it is normal for anyone to have problems and difficulties… I myself am really quite lucky. Whether it’s my family, my master’s supervisor, my doctoral supervisor, or my current laboratory head, Dan Yang, they have treated and continue to treat me fairly.

I do know discrimination exists though. Some women are more or less under pressure from society, family or tutors. They feel that they should not spend so much time studying, they should get married and have children etc. I have always been special, probably because my background has always been relatively equal, so I especially encourage everyone to resist this kind of thing. The reality is though, that this is difficult for some people, especially the students. So I have always felt that it is very necessary for the government to provide some policy help.

Q: How does it feel to be awarded a Westlake Outstanding Postdoctoral Women award?

A: I feel honored and surprised, and also very, very happy to be a recipient of this award. There are a lot of people talking about the equal rights between females and males in China right now. So I think this award is a very good gesture to all society.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: I want to be an independent Principal Investigator, to organize my own lab and do research based on my own background and interests.