On July 17, Professor Lounès Chikhi, an internationally renowned human genetics expert and Senior Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), visited the Oujiang Laboratory upon invitation and was formally appointed as Academic Advisor to the China-Africa “Belt and Road” Joint Laboratory .
During the visit, both parties engaged in in-depth exchanges through academic presentations and thematic discussions.
On the morning of the 17th, Professor Chikhi delivered an academic lecture titled “Reconstructing the evolutionary history of species with genomic data: what are we talking about?” to the laboratory's researchers and graduate students. He systematically critiqued the current mainstream analytical paradigm based on historical fluctuations in effective population size (Ne), pointing out its significant limitations in interpreting population genetic data with spatial structure (such as geographic isolation). Traditional methods may misinterpret population size changes (e.g., false bottleneck signals). By introducing an innovative model integrating spatial structure and gene flow dynamics, Professor Chikhi proposed a more precise research framework for interpreting species evolutionary history, offering new perspectives for endangered species conservation, human origins research, and the analysis of natural selection mechanisms. During the interactive session, attending scholars engaged in in-depth discussions with him on topics such as model validation.
In the afternoon, Professor Chikhi held a thematic symposium with principal investigators (PIs) from relevant fields within the laboratory. Both parties engaged in comprehensive and in-depth discussions on establishing strategic cooperation mechanisms, jointly applying for China-Europe research projects, innovating talent development models, and implementing scientific resource sharing mechanisms. They reached a consensus on deepening future collaboration in these areas
During the symposium, Wang Yi, Deputy Director of Oujiang Laboratory, presented Professor Chikhi with an appointment letter as Academic Advisor to the China-Malaysia Joint Research Laboratory on Rodents. Oujiang Laboratory will leverage this opportunity to actively promote multifaceted collaboration between the joint laboratory and France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Toulouse. This initiative aims to further expand the international academic cooperation network and jointly advance scientific innovation.
