Wang Yinglai

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Wang.
Wang Yinglai
王应睐
Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry
Doctoral advisorDavid Keilin
Notable studentsLi Zaiping, Xu Genjun, Hong Guofan, Liu Xinyuan, Wang Enduo
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin
Wáng Yīnglài
Wade–GilesWang Ying-lai

Wang Yinglai (

Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry
in 1958 and served as its director until his retirement in 1984.

Early life and education

Wang was born in

Dunn Nutritional Laboratory. He transferred to the Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology in 1944.[2]

Career

Wang returned to China at the end of World War II despite efforts by Keilin and Joseph Needham to persuade him to stay at Cambridge. Determined to help develop scientific research in China, he accepted a research professorship at the medical school of the National Central University in Nanjing, and later joined the Medical Institute of Academia Sinica in 1948.[2]

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang became deputy director of the newly established Shanghai Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry, under director

Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and served as its director until his retirement in 1984.[2] In these capacities, he recruited many prominent Chinese scientists from abroad, including future academicians Cao Tianqin, Chen-Lu Tsou (Zou Chenglu), Wang Debao and Niu Jingyi.[4][5]

Wang's most significant contribution was the total chemical synthesis of insulin. He started the project in 1958 with a team of scientists, who first synthesized the 20

amino acids that constitute proteins, and then used them to produce chains of insulin. His team successfully synthesized insulin in 1965, the first in the world to do so. It was a major breakthrough to produce a biologically active compound from inorganic chemicals.[2]

Many scientists, including the

Mao Zedong thought. He was unable to conduct research for most of the ten years.[6] During an interview in 1986, Wang told The Straits Times that "we were like the proverbial hare which took a long nap while others were not like the tortoise".[1]

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wang and his team resumed their work and achieved the synthesis from inorganic chemicals of a transfer RNA (tRNA), another significant biological molecule, in the late 1970s.[2]

Wang established several training programs for young biochemists, many of whom later became accomplished scientists, including academicians Li Zaiping, Xu Genjun, Hong Guofan, Liu Xinyuan,[4] and Wang Enduo.[7]

Awards

In 1988,

Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Achievement in Science and Technology. When he won the award with its prize money of one million yuan, he used it to fund a scholarship for graduate students at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[4]

Personal life

Wang met Liu Runling (刘润苓), a student at Yenching University, when he was recuperating from tuberculosis in Beijing. They married and had two sons, Wang Jiahu (王家槲) and Wang Jianan (王家楠). Liu worked as a teacher and started a kindergarten. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in old age and died in 1992.[9]

Wang died in Shanghai on 5 May 2001, aged 93.[2] Academician Xu Genjun eulogized Wang with a quotation from the Tao Te Ching: "The top class of virtue is like water, which benefits ten thousand objects without any demands for return."[4]

Selected publications

Source:[3]

References

  1. ^
    PMID 11452292
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Wang Ying-Lai". Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  3. ^ a b c "王应睐". Jiusan Society. 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  4. ^
    PMID 21822796
    .
  5. PMID 12040406
    .
  6. ^ a b c Matson, Boyd (1987-09-27). "Science During the Cultural Revolution in China: The Story of Wang Ying-Lai" (PDF). NBC. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  7. ^ "王恩多". Jiusan Society. 2018-05-25. Archived from the original on 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2018-10-23.
  8. ISSN 1521-6543
    .
  9. ^ Li, Hujun (2001-08-09). "帅才科学家". Nanfang Weekend. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
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