Biao Ding grew up in a small village in a remote mountainous area in Yunnan Province, China. His family was very poor, and for more than 10 years, his father worked for the government and could only come home for Chinese New Year due to poor transportation, and his mother took care of three and then five children in the village. There was no electricity in the village, and going from place to place was only done by foot, as there were no cars, no trucks and no bicycles.

With that, Biao recalls how he would look forward to Chinese New Year every year – his father came home for a few days to add festivity, and it was the only time the family could have a little bit of rice (other times they would eat boiled plain potatoes or corn for months without much flavors) and meat. “One million dollars today would not give me the same excitement and joy that little bowl of rice — often mixed with corn meal — or a few pieces of meat gave me then,” Biao remarks.

Biao missed the first semester of his first grade in his own village because he had to babysit his little brother at home so that his mother could work in the field. He still very much enjoyed learning, so he would go listen to the teacher outside the classroom with his baby brother on his back, and come back home practicing writing Chinese characters on the walls using self-made chalks from mud. The teacher, the only one in the entire village, later talked to his mother into letting him attend the second semester. When he started third grade, he and other children had to walk to another village for schooling. He was really tired of walking for hours each day, often in the mud without shoes. Very occasionally, he could see a commercial truck on a bumpy road far away. That was very exciting to him – it was something so civilized and yet unreachable. He wished that he could ride a truck so he didn't have to walk. His mother told him that if he wanted to drive a truck when he grew up, he should study hard, as only factories had trucks at the time and for a farmer to get a factory job like driving a truck was extremely difficult and almost impossible.

After school each day, Biao worked in the the field to help support the family – doing anything a village kid could do including hand-ploughing the field, planting crops, applying pesticides, harvesting, etc. In 1972, his family moved to the little city his father was working in to be united with him after 10 years of constant effort. China held the first nationwide college entrance exam for the first time in 1977, after a 10-year gap due to the Cultural Revolution, and Biao was selected by Beijing Forestry College. His big sister, who is a very talented self-taught singer, was also interested in going to college — but had to sacrifice her career for Biao because the family could not support two college students. When Biao entered college, he was one of the two youngest; the oldest students in his class were 32. The college years were very exciting, and he spent all the time studying. He had become very interested in science during high school years, and wanted to be a scientist in a lab coat but there was not much research being done in China at that time.

During the final year in college he passed a national exam for selecting students to pursue graduate studies overseas. With a Chinese government fellowship, he attended Cornell University in 1983 to study plant science for a M.S. degree. After completing his M.S. studies he continued to pursue a Ph.D. degree in plant cell biology at Cornell and graduated in 1991. From there he went on to pursue postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis, starting to collaborate with researchers from many institutions to investigate how viruses move between cells to propagate infection.

For Biao, the joy of doing research is beyond making new discoveries. His unique background has allowed him to appreciate every small and big opportunity. He cherishes the growing up experiences in China, and values the privileges he has had in the US to explore exciting new research and life. With the academic and supporting structure in the US, he was able to begin his career as a plant anatomist, then a cell biologist, and ventured into molecular biology, and now into RNA structure, virology, biochemistry and genomics. It is very exciting to work with all kinds of colleagues — faculty and students and postdocs — to explore new frontiers of research, making new discoveries none of us can do alone. For his virology work now, there is also a sense of responsibility to help discover how a virus evolves and works so that perhaps the knowledge he gains can be used to develop new treatments. Through collaborations, he makes new friends. He trains students and postdocs to become new generations of researchers to advance science. Biao is most gratified seeing the successes of his former students and postdocs in their careers.

Outside the lab and office, Biao enjoys climbing mountains and walking on nature trails. His fascination with mountains apparently came from his childhood life in the mountainous village. He also likes swimming, and is learning dancing. He loves foods from different cultures. He took piano lessons for two years while at Cornell, and hopes he can pick up piano again sometime in the future. Starting from those piano lessons, music has been an important part of his life.    

For more information, visit https://molgen.osu.edu/people/ding.35