Jinpei Ye   Ph.D
	Professor  Master Supervisor
	Email: jinpei. ye@sxu.edu.cn

Education and work expression   

    Dr. Jinpei Ye was born, grown up, educated to postgraduate, and had developed an early academic career in China before moving in 1998 and settling later as a British citizen in the United Kingdom (UK). He was graduated with the First (First-class honours, 1984) and Master (1987) degrees in Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine from Yangzhou University in China and was appointed as a Lecturer at the same university upon graduation. Jinpei obtained his PhD degree in Physiology and Animal Development from the University of Nottingham in the UK in 2003, under the supervision of world-renowned physiologists Prof. Tony Flint and Prof. Martin Luck and developmental biologist Prof. Keith Campbell, the creator of world first cloned mammalian “Dolly” the sheep. Upon completion of his PhD programme, Jinpei was appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham in the UK (2003-2006), and since then he has carried out research and development projects as a Senior Research Associate and a Senior Scientist at several other top universities and bio-industries in the UK, including the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (2006-2009), the University of Manchester (2009-2012), the University of Edinburgh Roslin Cell Limited (Cell Therapies, 2013-2015), and University College London (2015-2016). As a specially imported chair professor, supported by a special Central Government’s scheme for upgrading Midwest-land’s higher education institutions, Jinpei joined Shanxi University at Taiyuan in China in February 2017.

     Jinpei’s research interest has always been in life cycle, developmental and stem cell biology/biotechnology with more than 30 years’ research experience and extensive laboratory bench skills. Importantly his career pathway has been carefully developed step-by-step and consecutively with each step being focused on each stage of organism development in order; in chronological order of focus, his research has involved gametogenesis, fertilization, embryogenesis, embryonic stem cells (ESCs), cellular/nuclear reprogramming and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), foetal amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSCs), cell differentiation and lineage specification, therapeutic cells and translation for clinical applications. The subjective of his research covers also a broad range of species, including small laboratory animals (mice and rabbits), large farm animals (goats, pigs and cattle), and humans (embryos, tissues and cells). With a special licence, Jinpei created the first human-animal cytoplasmic hybrid (cytobrid) embryos intending for the derivation of patient-specific cytobrid human ESCs for research purposes in the UK.

     In recent years, Jinpei’s work has been focused on the generation and differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs, including hESCs and hiPSCs). Stem cells are fascinating because they can self-renew as well as can give rise to certain terminally differentiated cell populations. In particular, ESCs and their closely mimic counterpart of iPSCs are the master cells of the body and they can essentially give rise to all types of cells by differentiation. It is fundamental to understand how such master cells undergo their lineage specifications during development. These master or pluripotent cells, as well as specific adult stem cells and progenitor cells, are important cells for disease modelling and drug discovery, cell therapy and tissue engineering. Recently, in collaboration with the North West Embryonic Stem Cell Centre (NWESC) at the University of Manchester in England, Jinpei has successfully derived 7 clinical-grade hESC lines of the highest quality at the highest ethical standard currently available in the world, which are truly golden stem cells. And at the Cell Therapies of Roslin Cell Ltd, the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Jinpei has developed a couple of highly efficient protocols for a) the differentiation of mesenchymal progenitor (MSC-like) cells and b) the differentiation of endothelial cells (ECs) from hESCs under the stringent GMP conditions which is required for potential clinical applications. He has also generated multiple lines of hiPSCs without exogenous gene integration from human skin fibroblasts and human foetal amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFSCs) with colleagues at University of College London.

      Building on those exciting progresses achieved in recent years, the major work in Jinpei’s new laboratory with state-of-the-art facilities here in Shanxi is currently focused on exploration of his newly established and expanded hPSC lines, especially those clinical-grade hESC lines, as well as adult stem cells, for applications in a) cell therapy and b) genetic disease modelling. To these ends, his laboratory takes various approaches, including step-by-step differentiation, reprogramming and direct lineage conversion, and genome editing among others, to generate and genetically modify various functional cell types from hPSCs with a clinical compatibility. Specifically, his laboratory is interested in:

1. hPSCs and their derived cells: generation, differentiation and functional characterisation of a) haematopoietic stem like/progenitor cells (HSPCs), b) mesenchymal stem like/progenitor cells (MSPCs), and/or c) endothelial cells (ECs) among other types of cells.

2. hPSC genome editing and modelling for the susceptibility to human Tuberculosis (TB) and/or for human primary immune-deficient diseases (PIDs), and other rare genetic diseases.

3. Foetal after-birth tissue stem cells: clinical-grade mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from umbilical cord, placenta, and amniotic fluid; umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells, etc.

The ultimate goals of the work on clinical-grade hESCs and tissue derived stem cells are to develop first man trials of therapeutic hESC-derivatives and after-birth foetal tissue-derivatives with or without genetic modifications.

Selected Publications

 1. Ye, J; Bates, N; Soteriou, D; Grady, L; Edmond, C; Ross, A; Kerby, A; Lewis, P; Adeniyi, T; Wright, R; Poulton, K; Kimber, S. J; Brison, D. R. (2017) High quality clinical grade human embryonic stem cell lines derived from fresh discarded embryos Stem Cell Research and therapies 8:128 (1-13).

 2. McKay, TR; Camarasa, MV; Iskender, B; Ye, J; Bates, N; Miller, D; Fitzsimmons, JC; Foxler, D; Mee, M; Sharp, TV; Aplin, J; Brison, DR and Kimber, SJ (2011) Human feeder cell line for derivation and culture of hESc/hiPSc. Stem Cell Research 7 (2): 154-162.

 3. Ye, J. Majlinda Lako, Armstrong, L. (2010) Development of cytoplasmic hybrid embryos constructed with human fibroblasts derived from embryonic stem cells and enucleated bovine oocytes (Media reported).

 4. Ye, J., Coleman.J, Hunter, M. Craigon. J, Campbell, K. H. S and Luck, M. R. (2007) Physiological temperature variants modify meiotic progression and developmental potential of pig oocytes in vitro. Reproduction, 133 (5): 877-886.

 5. Ye, J., Campbell, K. H. S., Craigon, J. and Luck, M. R. (2005) Dynamic changes in meiotic progression and improvement of developmental competence of pig oocytes in vitro by follicle-stimulating hormone and cycloheximide. Biology of Reproduction, 72 (2): 399-406.

 6. Ye, J., Campbell, K. H. S and Luck, M. R (2004) Improvement of in vitro production of pig embryos by synchronisation of oocyte meiotic maturation with cycloheximide. Reproduction, Fertility and Development, 16 (1): 204

 7. Ye, J., Flint, A. P. F., Luck, M. R., and Campbell, K. H. S (2003) Independent activation of MAP kinase and MPF during the initiation of meiotic maturation in pig oocytes. Reproduction, 125 (5): 645-656.

 8. Ye, J., Flint, A. P. F., Campbell, K. H. S. and Luck, M. R. (2002) Synchronisation of porcine oocyte meiosis using cycloheximide and its application to the study of regulation by cumulus cells. Reproduction, Fertility and Development, 14 (7): 433-442.