On November 8, Ningbo University successfully held the 2025 Forum for Outstanding Young Scholars from Home and Abroad. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Institute specially invited four outstanding young scholars born in the 1990s to visit and exchange ideas, with the majority being born in the mid-1990s. These scholars have already achieved substantial research accomplishments in their respective fields and demonstrated excellent academic development potential.
On the morning of the event, the four scholars visited the Ningbo Gang Museum under the university's unified arrangements. In the afternoon, the exchange activity was held in Conference Room 412 of Building 7, Bao Yugang Science Building at the Institute, where the four young scholars presented their current research progress in sequence.
Attending the exchange event in person were: Academician Zhao Yufen, Director of the Institute and Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Researcher Liu Xinmin, Chief Scientist of the Institute and World Health Organization Consultant; Distinguished Research Professor and Party Branch Secretary Ying Jianxi; and Associate Research Professor Fu Songsen. Participating online were: Researcher Huang Shaohua, Executive Vice Director of the Institute; Chief Scientist Chen Yuzong; Researcher Wu Yile, Vice Director; and Professor Huang Zhen, Bao Yugang Chair Professor of our university and Professor at Sichuan University. Some faculty members, graduate students, and doctoral students from the Institute also attended the meeting.
At the meeting's opening, Ying Jianxi welcomed the four young scholars on behalf of the Institute and briefly introduced their academic backgrounds. Subsequently, Huang Shaohua introduced the Institute's development overview and research platforms online. During the academic presentation session, the four scholars delivered excellent presentations on their respective research directions: Dr. Zhang, currently serving as a tenured researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Germany, presented on "Glutamic Acid Targeting through Halo Tag-Inspired Covalent Chemistry"; Dr. Zhou from the University of Queensland/University of Tokyo shared "Application of Transpeptidases for Peptide and Protein Engineering"; Dr. Hu from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced "Application Research of Functional Nucleic Acids in Disease Diagnosis and Treatment"; Dr. Ling from Zhejiang University reported on "From Multi-omics Analysis to Precision Targeting: Innovative Mechanism Research of Natural Products in Metabolic Diseases and Tumors."
The attending experts provided individual commentary on each scholar's presentation and engaged in in-depth exchanges on relevant academic issues. In her closing remarks, Academician Zhao Yufen noted that young talents are the vital force driving China's scientific and technological progress and innovative development. The Institute of Drug Discovery Technology sincerely welcomes outstanding young scholars to join and hopes they will give priority consideration to the Institute in their future career planning.
Following the exchange, Academician Zhao Yufen took commemorative photos with the four young scholars.
