The Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences is pleased to announce that Neha Gupta has been selected as the recipient of the Frances and Chou-Chu Hong Award.
Neha Gupta earned her bachelor’s degree from Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Mathura, India, and her master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India. Neha is working toward her Ph.D in Dr. Rafael Fissore’s lab. The focus of her thesis is the role of divalent cations during fertilization and preimplantation embryo development. Neha has studied the role of divalent-permeable channel TRPM7 in mouse oocytes and embryos. TRPM7-KO animals are embryonically lethal, and the embryos perish at early preimplantation stages. She showed that development can be rescued by using magnesium supplementation but not by supplementation of other divalent cations. She worked with Dr. Dominique Alfandari to generate a TRPM7-specific antibody to localize TRPM7 in oocytes and preimplantation embryos. Neha also worked on identifying the active component of the sperm factor, PLCZ1, which is essential for egg activation and fertilization. Research has shown that PLCZ mutations in humans cause sterility. However, in mice, genetically constructed null animals were sub-fertile. She investigated the possible backup mechanism that was able to generate a few pups in Plcz null mice. She discovered that other sperm PLC, PLCdelta4, is upregulated in the null Plcz males and could partly compensate for the absence of PLCZ, representing the backup mechanism Ca2+. She worked in collaboration with Dr. Wei Cui to generate KO animals for both enzymes using CRISPR-Cas9. She has published two first-author papers and two co-author papers with collaborators. Several others are in preparation.
The Frances and Chou-Chu Hong Award was established by Jerry C. Hong and Jason I. Hong to honor their father, Chou-Chu Hong, DVM, PhD, who has made significant contributions to the fields of biotechnology and animal sciences. Chou-Chu Hong earned his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Veterinary and Animal Sciences in 1973. Throughout his career, he has brought international recognition to his alma mater through his achievements and leadership roles. Prior to his tenure as President of Taiwan's Level Biotechnology, Inc., Dr. Hong held various prestigious positions in academia and research. He was a faculty member at the Medical University of South Carolina and was invited by Taiwan's National Science Council to assist in establishing the Center for Toxicity and Preclinical Sciences. Additionally, he served as the director of Taiwan's National Laboratory Animal Breeding and Research Centered. Dr. Hong's academic contributions extend to his roles as a faculty member at National Taiwan University and the Academia Sinica. He has also demonstrated his commitment to advancing the field of laboratory animal sciences as the President of the Chinese Society of Laboratory Animal Sciences and as a member of Taiwan's Development Center for Biotechnology. The Frances and Chou-Chu Hong Award serves as a testament to Dr. Hong's dedication to education, research, and leadership in the field of biotechnology and animal sciences. It recognizes his exemplary achievements and the impact he has made on the global scientific community.