Prof. HU Wei, principal investigator of the Research Group of Fish Gene-Engineering at Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB), attended the sixth Intercongress Symposium of the Asia and Oceania Society for Comparative Endocrinology (AOSCE) at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand from 19 to 22 January 2010.

Prof. HH made an oral presentation at the symposium. He introduced the latest achievement made in revealing the role of Sox9 in the female-to-male sex reversal by using the orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) model. Collaborated with a lab at Sun Yat-sen University, Prof. Hu and his colleagues successfully performed artificial sex reversal by implanting a medicine strip containing 17α-methyltestosterone into the orange-spotted grouper.

Experts from 14 countries and regions throughout Asia and Oceania were present at the symposium. They had in-depth communications in comparative endocrinology, endocrinology of fish reproduction, relationship between fish reproduction and growth, and functional genomic study of comparative endocrinology.

The AOSCE was established in 1987. It is held every two years, providing scientists opportunities to share views with their colleagues around the world. The next symposium is scheduled to be held in 2012 in Malaysia.