"The Chinese Biological Investigators Society, the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics of Cornell University and Cornell University will sponsor a memorial symposium in memory of Professor Ray Wu at Cornell University October 3-4, 2008"
Joseph K.-K. Li, SCBA Executive DirectorBefore his unexpected death from a heart surgery on February 10, 2008, Ray J. Wu was the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, International Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and the former Department Chair (1976-1978) of the Section of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology at Cornell University. Convinced by his father, Professor Hsien Wu, who was trained in US, developed the Folin-Wu method for blood analysis, and returned to China to establish the first Department of Biochemistry as the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, Ray came to US in 1948. He got his BS degree from the University of Alabama in 1950 and his doctoral degree in Biochemistry at University of Pennsylvania in 1955. He was awarded a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship, working under Professor Efraim Racker in New York Public Health Research Institute. In his continuous pursuit of academic excellence, Ray became a Senior Visiting Investigator in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford University; a National Science Foundation Senior Fellow at the MRC Laboratory in Cambridge University, UK, and a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his a one-year sabbatical leave from Cornell in 1989, Ray assisted to establish the Institute of Molecular Biology of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan and served as institute’s Director. He was an Honorary Professor and later appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Peking University. Ray Wu served as an editor as well as co-editor for nine volumes of the Recombinant DNA Book in the Methods of Enzymology series from 1979 to 1993.
Between 1982 -1989, Ray Wu has successfully founded the China-United States Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Examination and Application (CUSBEA) Program. He interviewed, recruited and brought over 400 of the top 1- 5% of Chinese students to U.S. universities for graduate education, followed by post-doctoral training for their career enhancement. This successful CUSBEA program has produced over 100 faculty members in major universities as well as numerous COOs, CEOs and CSOs in many biotechnology companies. With the support of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America (SCBA), Ray Wu and Robert Yu of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and the Institute of Neuroscience at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta GA 30912 initiated the China-United States Biochemistry Admission (CUSBA) Program in 1995.
This CUSBA program continues to provide coordinative services to Chinese students for their graduate admission to Departments of Biochemistry, Biology, Biophysics, and related fields. These Chinese scientists, with colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, formed the Ray Wu Society in the last decade to promote continuous advancement of the frontiers in life sciences. It has become the Chinese Biological Investigators Society (CBIS) in the last five years.
Ray Wu has also worked with many Chinese bioscientists supported by the Taiwanese government. Thus, he took the leadership role to establish the Institute of Molecular Biology and the Institute of BioAgricultural Sciences at the Academia Sinica in Taipei. That is why he was conferred numerous Honorary Professorship in more than a dozen universities and research institutes in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong for his distinguished service in education and facilitation of international scientific cooperation. Every one who knows Ray agrees unanimously that he is probably and undoubtedly the most influential bioscientist pioneer in developing and consolidating very large numbers of U.S./Chinese cooperation in biological sciences and education.
Ray Wu is also a pioneer in genetic engineering. He developed the first method for sequencing DNA and some of the fundamental tools for DNA cloning. The strategy he developed in 1970 for determining the sequence of DNA was the location-specific primer-extension method. After several innovative modifications by other scientists to greatly speed up the process, the same strategy is still being used for the last 4 decades. The utilization of this strategy has led to the DNA sequence determination of the entire genomes of rice and human and other organisms which is the giant step of genomics. Knowing the genome sequence of these organisms will help us to understand different genetic traits, and it will eventually benefit agriculture and improve human health.
Following a prominent career in genetic engineering recombinant DNA research, Ray Wu focused his research on one of the important problems of the world food production and hunger. In 1988, he led one of the first groups to succeed in producing transgenic rice plants. For the last two decades, he has been working on projects in rice biotechnology, and this continues at full pace today. Rice is an essential crop for food security, poverty alleviation and improved livelihoods, especially in Asia since an estimated 2 billion people will obtain over 60% of their food energy from rice. Even though 80% of the rice is grown globally by smallscale farmers in low income countries, rice production does provide jobs for almost 1 billion people.
In 1996, Ray Wu published a very innovative and unique method for the production of drought- and salt-tolerant rice and crop plants, which can eventually be used to benefit farmers in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Southeast Asia regions. Under his leadership, his lab successfully bioengineered and modulated genes that are required for the synthesis of the naturally occurring sugar trehalose. These genes are specifically “turned on” when the plant such as rice is under drought or salt stress. By permitting the use of otherwise unusable land with high salinity and frequent drought in these countries, the drought and salt-tolerant crop plants and rice can effectively address and handle these problems, resulting in the improvement of the productivity of both usable and marginal land to produce sufficient rice for the hungry population. It has been estimated that these drought- and salt-tolerant plants have the potential of increasing the yield of major cereal crop plants by 30% by 2025 and this will be very beneficial to consumers as well..
Ray has published over 300+ original research papers in international peerreviewed journals with high impact indexes in the areas of genetic engineering, medicine, plant biology and plant biotechnology, he holds (or jointly holds) five patents covering a wide range of genetic engineering methods.
Ray Wu has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his work. These include a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2003; and elected a Fellow in the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the prestigious Frank Annunzio Award in Science and Technology in 2002, which is a $50,000 award presented by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, for his work in genetic engineering, especially for discovering the first method of sequencing DNA and in the production of new cereal crops.
Ray has also provided significant professional service to numerous academic, national and international committees, examples of which include:
Without any doubt, Ray Wu was an outstanding and highly accomplished researcher who has successfully mentored of large numbers of productive graduate students and postdoctoral associates who are currently very active in academia institutions and industrial companies globally as well as in the U.S. His research accomplishments had fostered Cornell University as one of the top ten in molecular biology and plant biotechnology program in the world. Ray Wu lived with his wife, Christina in Ithaca, NY. They had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2006. Ray was survived by his wife, two children: Albert Wu 80 (A&S), M.D. (84), and Alice Wu (82), MS (86); his daughter-in-law Diana; his son-in-law Lewis; his grandson Samuel Patterson Wu of Diana and Albert, and grandson Alex and granddaughter Adriana of Lewis and Alice. Albert and Diana are expecting another child in May 2008.
Joseph K.-K. Li, SCBA Executive Director