On January 26, 2015, Dr. Eberhard Fuchs visited the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIZ, CAS) to discuss recent advances in the use of the tree shrew animal model. KIZ is the primary center for work on tree shrews within the People’s Republic of China, hosting dedicated facilities for tree shrew breeding lines, the recently published tree shrew genome database, and numerous research groups investigating the basic and translational applications of tree shrews.

At the invitation of Dr. Xu Lin of the KIZ Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms (AMHD), Fuchs presented a lecture entitled “social stress model of depression in tree shrews" and led a discussion with researchers at KIZ using tree shrews in their research. Following the lecture, Fuchs also toured KIZ tree shrew facilities and spoke directly to researchers at the institute on the benefits of enhancing German-Sino cooperation on tree shrew research initiatives.

Dr. Fuchs is one of the world's leading experts on tree shrews, and currently is a professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Goettingen University Medical School in Germany. Fuchs’ research focuses on brain structures the underlying neural pathways that underlie normal as well as abnormal behavior, the development of animal models, and central nervous and behavioral phenomena that are associated with stress and depression, in order to study Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. 

(By Andrew Willden)