On August 5, 2025 at 15:00, the 85th “Chen Bangjie Forum” of the College of Life Sciences was successfully held in the round conference room on the third floor of the Xingzhi Building. At the invitation of Dr. Jian Li and Dr. Linhua Sun, young teachers of the College of Life Sciences of Nanjing Normal University, Research Professor Weiqiang Qian from the School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences of Peking University gave a scientific lecture on “Dynamic Regulation Mechanism and Biological Function of DNA Methylation”. The lecture was chaired by Professor Zhong Bojian, staff and students actively participated in this lecture.

Dr. Qian Weiqiang first introduced the concept of DNA methylation in accessible language, compared the research progress and differences of DNA methylation between plants and animals, and emphasized the unique advantages of plant systems for studying the regulatory mechanisms of DNA methylation. He then focused on two key topics: "Regulatory mechanisms of DNA methylation/demethylation" and "Response pathways to DNA single-strand breaks"," systematically presenting his team's major breakthroughs in these areas. In the last section, Dr. Qian provided an in-depth analysis of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in plant response to heat stress and gave an insightful outlook on possible future research directions.

During the interactive session following the lecture, Dr. Qian engaged in in-depth academic discussions with the staff and students present. He not only gave detailed answers to professional questions, but also enthusiastically discussed several possible research directions for collaboration. The lecture not only presented the latest findings, but also provided attendees with a comprehensive overview of the historical development of DNA methylation studies. More importantly, participants gained valuable ideas for research topic selection and experimental design from this talk, which provided both academic rigor and historical perspective.