The second batch of the "The New Cornerstone Investigator Program ("the Program")" was announced in Beijing on October 30th, with a total of 46 scientists on the list, including 8 in the field of medical science. Prof. Shengyong Yang from the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy at West China Hospital has been named among the second batch under the "Program".
The New Cornerstone Investigator Program was set up by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation ("the Foundation") as a platform for launching research work and academic exchange. The Program is a non-profit and independent funding initiative which takes an innovative approach to encouraging basic research spearheaded by leading scientists. Tencent established the Foundation in 2022 to provide long-term support for basic research with a funding of RMB 10 billion over 10 years. The Program focuses on Mathematics and Physical Sciences, and Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and encourages interdisciplinary research between the two areas.
Profile: Being a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy at West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Shengyong Yang is a candidate for the "National High Level Talent Plan" of the Ministry of Education, a recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, and a leader of the innovation group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He is mainly engaged in computer-aided drug molecular design new methods and small molecule targeted drug discovery research. He has published, in his capacity of a corresponding author, multiple research papers in important journals such asScience,Nat Microbiol, Nat Chem Biol, Nat Commun, PNAS, Chem Rev, Angelw Chem Int Ed, etc. The research achievements have won the second prize of the National Natural Science Award and the first prize of the Ministry of Education's Natural Science Award.