Guangshuo Ou: New perspectives on Q cell biology

C lassic experiments in C. elegans showed that a neuroblast stem cell, called the Q cell, undergoes sequential asymmetric cell divisions that result in daughter cells with dramatically different cell fates. The daughters of the fi rst division migrate to different locations in the animal where they divide again. A further round of division generates a small daughter cell that immediately dies by apoptosis and a large daughter cell that migrates and differentiates. For Guangshuo Ou, the C. elegans Q cell lineage is the perfect system in which to study the mechanisms of asymmetric cell division (1) and the processes that drive cell migration (2), differentiation (3), and apop-tosis (4). The classic studies had stopped short of probing Q neuroblast biology in depth, but Ou's application of modern microscopy and live-cell imaging has shed new light on the subject. We called him at his lab at China's Tsinghua University to learn about the new technologies (5) he's bringing to C. elegans stem cell biology. Who in your early life infl uenced your decision to go into research? My dad is a scientist who works on global positioning systems, and he's an investigator at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. So it's probably not surprising I wanted to be a scientist early on. He promoted my sense of curiosity about the world and encouraged me to try various things. Also, he's a tiger dad—you know, like tiger moms—so he was very strict with me about my studies. As a result I did pretty well in middle school. My scores were good enough to get me into one of the best high schools in Wu-han, where I grew up. There, I was selected into a special class where students trained to compete in the International Olympiad for mathematics, physics, or chemistry. However, I quickly realized this was a mistake for me. Some of my classmates were real geniuses, and I doubted whether I was smart enough. I became anxious, couldn't focus on anything, and couldn't sleep. But during these sleepless nights, I fi gured out some things that helped me out and that still infl uence me today. First, I should not compare myself to my classmates. I should just try to make progress every day, and gradually I would be able to solve even very hard problems. Second, I decided I should focus on biology, because I wanted to be a scientist …