Zhi-Yan Jiang,¹ Heng-Yu Fan<sup>1,*,**

1</sup>Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

^*Correspondence: Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, 866 Yu Hang Tang Rd., Hangzhou 310058, China. Tel: +8657188981370; E-mail: hyfan@zju.edu.cn
^**Dr. Heng-Yu Fan is currently a professor at the Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, China. He received his PhD in 2003 at the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, mentored by Prof. Qing-Yuan Sun. Afterward, he went to the United States and did postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine, supervised by Prof. JoAnne Richards. He became an independent faculty member of Zhejiang University in 2010. Dr. Fan's current research interests include 1) the role of genetic and epigenetic factors in regulating oocyte development, maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT), and early embryogenesis, and 2) the mechanisms through which signaling pathways and their target genes regulate ovarian follicle development and ovulation in mammals. Dr. Fan's group has recently identified several maternal factors that play critical roles in regulating maternal mRNA decay during oocyte maturation and MZT and has elucidated the function of MAPK cascade in mediating meiotic cell cycle-coupled translational activation of maternal mRNAs. The major findings that he reviewed in this manuscript were published in Science, Mature Structural and Molecular Biology, Cell Research, EMBO Journal, Nature Communications, Nuclear Acids Research, and Development.