Between April 11 and April 21, I undertook a business trip to China, upon the invitation of the Chinese side. During this trip, I visited three different institutions, where I introduced our faculty and delivered invited lectures.
The first presentation, titled “Mitochondria in Germ Plasm: Essential but Replaceable for PGC Formation in Sturgeons”, was given as part of the International Symposium on Aquaculture Biotechnology, hosted by the College of Fisheries, Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan. We have had a long-standing cooperation agreement with this institution. Our research activities closely intersect, particularly in the field of gene and genome manipulations, and this year we plan to host two students from this university for internships.
The second presentation, in which I introduced our research in the field of germ cell biology, was delivered at the Department of Genetic Breeding, Hunan Fisheries Science Institute in Changsha, where our former student, Dr. Xuan Xie, is currently working.
The third visit took place at the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences. This included the formal signing of a cooperation agreement, followed by a presentation of our faculty and our research activities. One of our current students, Linan Gao, originally came from this institution and, following the successful completion of her studies, she is expected to return to continue her work at the Beijing Academy.
The discussions focused mainly on student exchange and recruitment of students into our Master’s study program Fishery and Protection of Waters.
In addition, I had the opportunity to visit two sturgeon farms collaborating with Chinese research institutions. The first, Beijing Jushengyuan Seed Industry, is a large-scale farm primarily focused on the production of Kaluga × Amur sturgeon hybrids for caviar production. The second, Beijing Tianyuan Yugang Farm, is a smaller family-run facility that also operates a hotel and restaurant in a scenic mountain area beneath the Great Wall of China.
