EXPERT PROFILES

Course Module 1：RNA Biology

Professor Jerry L. Workman is a Senior Investigator at the prestigious Stowers Institute in the United States, a pioneering scientist and a member of the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His exceptional contributions to gene expression research have reshaped the field, particularly in uncovering the pivotal role of histones in DNA packaging and gene regulation. His landmark discovery of diverse histone-modifying enzyme complexes has greatly enhanced our understanding of gene expression dynamics. Recognized for his outstanding achievements, Professor Workman received the Maximizing Investigator's Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in 2018. His seminal work involved the identification of diverse histone- modifying enzyme complexes, which has since been regarded as a landmark discovery in the realm of gene expression studies. Jerry L. Workman's invaluable findings have greatly enhanced our understanding of the intricate mechanisms governing gene regulation. He received the Maximizing Investigator’Research Award 2018 from National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Professor Dinshaw J. Patel is the member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Chair in Experimental Therapeutics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and serves as a faculty member in the Structural Biology Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute (SKI). He has dedicated his career to investigating structure-based mechanistic insights underlying biological macromolecular interactions, including the CRISPR-Cas and cGAS-STING surveillance pathways, histone and DNA methylation in epigenetic regulation and RNA-mediated processes ranging from riboswitches and ribozymes to those governing siRNA and piRNA pathways. His commitment to advancing scientific knowledge and fostering global partnerships in research has been acknowledged with awards such as the inaugural C.C. Tan Life Science International Collaboration Award.

Professor Don Cleveland is the member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As a distinguished cancer biologist and neurobiologist, he currently serves as the dean of the Department of Cell and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. In 2013, he was elected as the President of the American Society for Cell Biology. Recognized for his groundbreaking work, he was awarded the Life Science Breakthrough Award in 2018 for his pivotal research on elucidation of the molecular pathogenesis of hereditary ALS, including the role of glia in neurodegenerative diseases, and the establishment of antisense oligonucleotide therapy in animal models of ALS and Huntington's disease. His groundbreaking research contributions extend to  the assembly of mitotic spindles and the regulation of chromosome movement.

Professor Shaorong Gao is a member of the Chinese academy of Sciences, serving as dean of the School of Life Science and Technology at Tongji University, and Director of the Frontier Science Center for Cell Stem. He is an world-renowned developmental and stem cell biologist. His primary research focuses on the molecular regulatory mechanisms in embryo development and somatic cell reprogramming. He successfully produced iPS mice, thereby demonstrating the pluripotency of iPS cells. He identified key mechanisms of epigenetic reprogramming in iPSC induction and somatic cell nuclear transfer. He has also successfully elucidated the dynamics and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of DNA and histone modifications remodeling during early embryo development, making significant contributions to the advancement of stem cell and developmental biology.

Prof. Duojia Pan is a member of the American Academy of Sciences, he is currently Bashour Distinguished Chair of Physiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research and the Passano Award, and was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Much of his work over the past 20 years has focused on the Hippo signaling pathway, a fundamental mechanism that regulates tissue growth in animals ranging from insects to mammals. His laboratory systematically decoded the key molecular events in the Hippo pathway in Drosophila and established its conserved role in mammalian tissue growth, regeneration and tumorigenesis. Besides the Hippo pathway, his laboratory also elucidated the molecular function of the Tsc1 and Tsc2 tumor suppressor genes, linking Tsc1/Tsc2 to Rheb and mTOR signaling. This work provided the molecular basis for the use of mTOR inhibitors in the treatment of Tuberous Sclerosis.

Professor Yanhui Xu’s a distinguished researcher renowned for his contributions to the field of gene expression regulation, the assembly of transcriptional initiation complexes, chromatin remodeling, and DNA methylation regulation. His groundbreaking work has earned widespread recognition and praise within the scientific community. With over 40 corresponding author papers to his name, including publications in prestigious journals such as Science, Nature, and Cell, Prof. Xu has demonstrated excellence in scientific inquiry and dissemination. He has been awarded prestigious talent projects such as the New Cornerstone science Foundation and the National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation (NSFC), as well as the Science Exploration Award, Tan Jiazhen Life Science Award (Innovation Award). He received the First Prize in Natural Science of the Ministry of Education's Excellent Achievement Award for Scientific Research in Higher Education (First Completion) and his research was recognized as one of  the Top Ten Advances in Life Science in China in 2021.

Prof. Chuan He currently serves as the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prof. He’s research spans a broad range of fields including chemical biology, RNA biology, epigenetics, biochemistry, genomics and has authored or co-authored over 470 publications. He is best known for his work in discovering and deciphering reversible RNA methylation in post-transcriptional gene expression regulation. He was awarded the Paul Marks Prize in Cancer Research (2017), ACS Chemical Biology Lectureship (2019), Ray Wu Award (2022), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2023), Tetrahedron Prize (2023) and Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year, Life Sciences (2023).

Prof. Xiang-Dong Fu, the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the Chair Professor at Westlake University. Dr. Fu is a renowned RNA biologist and a leading expert in neuron regeneration. He is credited with co-discovering SR proteins and discovering of a family of kinases specific for SR proteins, which are critical for RNA splicing. Dr. Fu’s research has been centered on understanding the functions of coding and non-coding RNAs in development and disease. His laboratory has also developed multiple technologies for high throughput analysis of gene expression, mRNA isoforms, and genomic interactions. One of their latest breakthroughs is the development of a new cellular reprogramming strategy to generate functional neurons from non-neuronal cells and the application of this approach to reverse the disease phenotype in a Parkinson’s disease model.

Dr. Chengqi Yi is a Boya Professor at School of Life Sciences of Peking University, as well as joint professor at the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering. He is also a senior investigator at the Center for Life Sciences between Peking and Tsinghua University and Center for Synthetic and Functional Biomolecules at Peking University. He is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and leads major research projects under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Prof. Yi’s research focuses on nucleic acid modifications and their regulatory roles in gene expression. His research interests are chemical biology, epitranscriptomics, and gene editing. His work has demonstrated the unique strengths and advantages of interdisciplinary research

Professor Fuchou Tang is a full professor at BIOPIC, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, and serves as the Associate Director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG). His lab focuses on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression network during human early embryonic development, germline development and tumorigenesis. His lab is renowned for pioneering the single cell sequencing field and has systematically developed a serial of single cell functional genomic sequencing technologies. With his work being cited more than 20,000 times, Prof. Tang has been recognized as a leading authority in his field and has been invited to present his research at prestigious conferences including AGBT, ISSCR, ICHG, and Gordon Conference, as well as being invited as an editorial board member for esteemed journals such as Cell Stem Cell, Cell Research, Protein & Cell, Genome Biology, Medical Review, Genomics Proteomics & Bioinformatics, Precision Clinical Medicine, and Open Biology.

Professor Xin Li earned his bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University, and his doctoral degree from Cornell University. Subsequently, he completed postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Medical College. Prior to his current position, he served as an Associate Professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He has three projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and one research project supported by the US Department of Agriculture. His research findings have been published in over 20 top professional journals, including Nature Cell Biology. He has presented his work at nearly 60 international conferences and esteemed universities.

 Professor Lingling Chen worked at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. She has made important contributions to understand the lncRNA diversity, biogenesis and function, in particular, the biogenesis of circular RNAs and their impact on innate immunity, and the roles of lncRNAs in the assembly and function of nuclear bodies. She was selected as a HHMI International Research Scholar in 2017, and as a New Cornerstone Investigator in 2022. Chen serves the community as a member of Editorial Boards including Cell, Science, and Molecular Cell, and as an organizer of meetings including the Annual Meeting of the RNA Society, the CSHL Regulatory & Non-coding RNAs and others. She is the recipient of the LOREAL China for Women in Science Award, the Xplorer Prize, the RNA Society Mid-Career Research Award and others.

Yijun Qi is a Professor in the School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University and a Senior Investigator at the Tsinghua-PKU Joint Center for Life Sciences. He is also a New Cornerstone Investigator. He is an expert on noncoding RNAs in plants. Work in his laboratory includes identification of new types of small RNAs, investigating the mechanisms of small RNA biogenesis and action in plants and the functions of small RNAs in regulating agronomic traits in crops. He has won a number of prestigious awards including National Innovation Award, National Science and Technology Award (the Second Prize), National Youth Science and Technology Award, and Tan JiaZhen Life Science Innovation Award.

Professor Yujiang Shi, Principal Investigator at IBS, is at the forefront of epigenetics research and has made groundbreaking contributions to the field. He discovered the first histone demethylase LSD1/KDM1A, laying the biochemical and biophysical foundation for histone demethylation, and significantly advancing our understanding of its biological function. Additionally, Prof. Shi has achieved remarkable success in the discovery of the DNA demethylase TET protein family and its functional research in stem cells and cancer, promoting the rapid development of epigenetics. Furthermore, he has made multiple important research achievements in the field of translational medicine for histone and DNA demethylation, with potential applications in clinical practice. Prof. Shi's research output is highly prolific, with over 60 research papers published, including more than 10 in top-tier journals such as Nature and Cell.

Prof. Jin Li, Professor of Genetics at Stanford University, has established himself as a prominent figure in the field of RNA editing research. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Tsinghua University in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis in 2005. Following his doctoral studies, Prof. Li pursued postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. His primary research focuses on ADAR enzyme mediated RNA editing and its application in site-specific transcriptome engineering. Prof. Li's groundbreaking work has revealed that the main function of RNA editing is to label endogenous dsRNAs as "self" to avoid being recognized as "non self" by MDA5, which holds significant potential for applications in cancer therapy, autoimmune diseases, and viral infections.

Course Module 2：Neurobiology

Professor Junying Yuan is a globally renowned cell biologist. She is currently the Director of Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2007, the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2010, the National Academy of Sciences since 2017, and the Foreign Members of the Chinese Academy of Science since 2023. She is recognized as a pioneering and influential leader in the field of cell death research. Her transformative discoveries on apoptosis and necroptosis have reshaped our understanding of these processes. Her discovery of mammalian caspases led to a molecular era in apoptosis research. She has found a series of key regulators in apoptosis and necroptosis, and revealed the molecular mechanisms and involvements in human diseases. RIPK1 inhibitors, first discovered and described by Dr. Yuan, have been advanced into human clinical trials for the treatment of human inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Professor Tak Wah Mak is a famous immunologist, oncologist, and biochemist. He achieved worldwide recognition for his seminal discovery of T cell TCR receptors in 1983, marking a significant milestone in immunology. In 1995, he published a milestone paper on the immune function of immune checkpoint molecule CTLA-4, paving the way for cancer treatment targeting immune checkpoints. He is also the founder of Agios Pharmaceuticals, whose flagship compound IDHIFA ® received FDA approval in August 2017 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, marking the first cancer treatment drug targeting cancer metabolic pathways. He has been selected as a member of the Royal Society of Canada, a member of the Royal Society of London, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in USA. He has also been honored with a series of internationally renowned awards, including the Behring Price, the King Faisal Price for Medicine, and the Novartis Price in Immunology.

Professor Liqun Luo is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of National Academy of Sciences. He is the Ann and Bill Swindells Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Biology, Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prof. Luo has dedicated himself to developmental neurobiology research for a long time and is internationally renowned for his work in the field of synaptic branching, which is crucial for the establishment and maintenance of neural circuits. He made significant contributions to the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic branching development using fruit flies, and discovered striking similarities between this branching mechanism and the weakening phenomenon observed in mammalian synapses after damage. His remarkable achievements have greatly advanced the fields of neural development, neural network formation, and the technological development of organizational neuroscience.

Professor Yi Rao is the President of Capital Medical University, a Chair Professor and the Founding Director of the PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Peking University, the Founding Director of PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, and the Founding Director of the Chinese Institute for Brain Research at Beijing. He teaches many courses including neurobiology, genetics, developmental biology,  cell biology and pharmacology. He worked on molecular and cellular basis of neural development, revealing the origin of two eyes in a single morphogenetic field, discovering the chemorepellent function of the Slit proteins in axon guidance and neuronal migration, and dissecting signal transduction mechanisms of the chemorepellent Slit and and chemoattractant Netrin. The Rao lab has invented the generally applicable chemoconnectomics approach and generated new genetic resources to study the functional roles of genes and cells in the chemoconnectome (CCT), to manipulate chemical transmission and to map neural circuits. The Rao lab has carried out research with flies, frogs, mice, rats, monkeys and humans to understand fundamental mechanisms both those conserved among animals and those unique for humans.

Professor Qinghua Liu works at the Beijing Institute of Life Sciences, and the Tsinghua University Institute of Biomedical Cross disciplinary Research. He obtained hia Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Wuhan University in 1992 and completed his PhD in Biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine in 2000. Prof. Liu has held positions as an Associate professor at the Southwest Medical Center of the University of Texas in the United States and as a professor at the International Institute of Comprehensive Sleep Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. His research focuses primarily on the screening of core regulatory genes for sleep and fear and in-depth molecular mechanism research.

Professor Jiayi Zhang is a Professor at the Institutes of Brain Science at Fudan University. She is currently the vice director of State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology. Her work was supported by the One Thousand Talent plan, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and Excellent Young Scholars, Scientific and Technological Innovation 2030, 863 Program, and Shanghai Leading Talent Project. Her work focused on the restoration of vision and motor functions. She utilized inter-disciplinary approaches to develop novel technologies for treating neural disorders, and restored of vision in blind mice using titanium oxide nanowires as artificial photoreceptors, some of them have been advanced into human clinical trials. She won the Shanghai Women's Innovation Newcomer Award at the year of 2020.

Professor Yulong Li obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Peking University and his PhD degree from Duke University, followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University.  He is currently a Professor at the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, the PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, and the PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research. His group has developed a series of novel genetically encoded fluorescent sensors, so-called GRAB (GPCR activation based) sensors, for real-time detection of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, such as ACh, DA, and NE, in vivo. His work has been selected into the Top Ten Progress of Life Sciences in China and the Top Ten News of Medical Science and Technology in China at 2018, the Top Ten Progress of Life Sciences in China and the Top Ten Progress of neuroscience in China at 2023. He has received numerous awards, including the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Scientific Exploration Prize, and the New Cornerstone Science Lab investigator.

Professor Cong Liu received his PhD at Peking University and pursued postdoctoral training at UCLA. He is currently a principal investigator at the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry (IRCBC), SIOC, CAS. By combining interdisciplinary chemical and biological approaches. Dr. Liu revealed the structural basis of protein pathological aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases, demonstrated the regulatory mechanisms of protein aggregation by disease-related post-translational modification, developed new strategies of designing small molecules to modulate protein phase separation for therapeutic application. In the past 5 years, as the corresponding or co-corresponding author, Dr. Liu has published over 70 SCI papers, including Cell, Nature Chemical Biology (2), JACS  (2), PNAS(6), Nat Struct & Mol Biol (3), Nature Communications (7)，Cell Research (5) and Molecular Cell. His systematical findings on protein phase separation and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases have been well recognized internationally in the field, leading to invitations to contribute review articles to renowned journals such as Cell, Nature Reviews Neuroscience，and Trends in Cell Biology.

Course Module 3：Evolution & Computational Biology

Professor Li Jin is a leading scientist renowned for his groundbreaking contributions to the model of recent African origin of modern humans and the study of human phenomics. His research encompasses genetic structure and migrations of human populations, genetics of human complex diseases and computational biology. He has served as a board member of HUGO, co-founded Genographic Project, Pan-Asian SNP Consortium, and International Human Phenome Consortium (IHPC) , and co-founded National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Shanghai International Human Phenome Institute. He received numerous well-known awards including State Award of Natural Sciences twice, C.C. Tan Life Science Achievement Award, Distinguished Academic Achievement Award of Human Genome Organization (HUGO), Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Ho-Leung-Ho-Lee Foundation. 

Professor Mark Stoneking is a geneticist and molecular anthropologist contributing to the field of human evolution. His research interests involve using molecular genetic methods to address questions of anthropological interest concerning the origins, migrations, and relationships of human populations, and the influence of selection during human evolution. He, along with his doctoral advisor Allan Wilson, contributed to the Out of Africa Theory in 1987 by introducing the concept of Mitochondrial Eve, a hypothetical common mother of all living humans based on mitochondrial DNA. 

Prof. Axel Meyer is an elected member of the Academy of Europe, the Academia Europaea, German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the European Molecular Biology Organization, and the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. He has received numerous awards including the Carus Medal from the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2009), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1996), the Young Investigator Prize from the American Society of Naturalists, and Hector Science Award 2012. Most recently, he was awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Dr. Philip A. Beachy is a world leading developmental biologist. His research interests mainly focus on functional characterization of Hedgehog proteins and other extracellular signals in morphogenesis and in injury repair and regeneration. He also studies the functional roles of various signaling molecules in stem cell physiology and how they can induce cancer stem cells. He discovered how Cyclopamine and Smoothened are related to Itraconazole, thus linking diverse fields of scientific research.

Prof. Katrin Andreasson is a physician-scientist studying mechanisms of immune-mediated brain injury in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is Co-Director of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) and Co-Director the ADRC Biomarker Core. Her research focuses on the investigation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal injury mediated by maladaptive systemic and central nervous system immune responses. She has identified innate immune pathways critical in establishing neurotoxic immune responses that lead to neurodegeneration in models of aging, AD, and stroke.

Professor Chung-I Wu has made numerous contributions in the fields of molecular evolution, population genetics, and evolutionary genomics, particularly in the genetic basis of speciation and natural selection. He has pioneered the study of speciation at the molecular level, introducing cutting-edge gene replacement techniques to answer classical ecological questions in the model organism Drosophila. He also made original contributions in areas such as selfish genes, molecular clocks, X chromosome degeneration, and evolutionary genomics. His proposed hypotheses on the genetic mechanism of reproductive isolation and the gene concept of speciation are innovative and represent a significant departure from traditional ideas in species biology. He has published over 200 papers in top journals like Science, Nature, and PNAS. He has been cited over 20000 times in total and rated as top 100 global scientists in life science by Elsevier. In 2011, he received the second prize of the National Natural Science Award, further solidifying his standing as a leading authority in molecular evolution and genetics.

Professor Manyuan Long has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of evolutionary biology, particularly in the identification of the "Jingwei gene" and elucidating the mechanisms governing new gene formation across various species. His pioneering work in the field of "Origin and Evolution of New Genes" has challenged conventional theories in evolutionary developmental biology and greatly expanded our understanding of gene evolution. His research has been published in top-tier journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, alongside the publication of five books and monographs. His exceptional contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for Natural Sciences and the Ray Wu Award in 2022, highlighting his leadership and impact in the scientific community.

Professor Xun Gu is a renowned computational molecular evolutionary scientist based at the Department of Genetics at Iowa State University. His research primarily focuses on the development of analytical and statistical methods for evolution and comparative genomics. He has made significant contributions to the field, particularly in the development of a statistical method and bioinformatics software to predict functional differences in protein families. He has conducted statistical analysis of expression differences between duplicate genes, modeled gene changes during genome evolution, and analyzed cross species model organism genomes. Currently, he is exploring new frontiers in systems biology and evolution, with a focus on understanding gene pleiotropy, genetic robustness, genomic complexity, and gene network evolution. He has published over 100 papers and been recognized with the Dupont Young Professor Award in 2011.

Professor Yi Xing is the Francis West Lewis Endowed Chair and Founding Director of the Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, as well as the Executive Director of the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Prior to his appointment at CHOP and Penn, Dr. Xing was a Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at UCLA, and served as Program Director of UCLA’s Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program. Dr. Xing received his BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology and BE in Computer Science and Technology from the University of Science and Technology of China (2001). He completed his PhD training in Bioinformatics with Dr. Christopher Lee at UCLA (2001-2006), and his postdoctoral training with Drs. Wing Hung Wong and Matthew Scott at the Stanford University (2006-2007). Dr. Xing has an extensive publication record in bioinformatics, genomics, and RNA biology. His work has provided fundamental insights into the function, regulation, and evolution of post-transcriptional RNA processing in mammals. His current research merges the fields of computational biology, biomedical data science, RNA genomics, human genetics, precision medicine, and immuno-oncology.

Professor Ting Wang is an internationally recognized geneticist for his research on genetic and epigenetic impact of transposable element on gene regulation. His lab developed widely-used DNA methylomics technologies, and apply integrative methods combining experimental and computational technologies for studying the evolution and adaption of human regulatory networks, particularly on the impact of these processes on human health and disease. His lab is home to the Wash U Epigenome Browser, utilized by various large genomic dataset Consortia including the NIH Roadmap Epigenome Project, ENCODE Project, 4D Nucleome Project, and TaRGET Project. He currently directs the NIH 4D Nucleome Network Data Coordination and Integration Center and the NIEHS Environmental Epigenomics Data Center, and co-lead the latest Human Pangenome project.

Professor Jian Yang’s research focuses on understanding the genomic variations among individuals within and between populations and the links of genomic variations with health outcomes. He has developed a series of software for data analyses in computational biology, including GCTA, SMR, OSCA , etc, which are widely used in the field of human genetics and genomics. He was awarded the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize (2012), the Australian Academy of Science Ruth Stephens Gani Medal (2015), and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Sciences (2017). Additionally, he has been selected as one of the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers from 2018 to 2021, underscoring the significant impact of his work in the scientific community.

Professor Yong Zhang has made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of dynamic evolution of male genes, as well as the role of new genes in early development and their impact on human brain evolution. His achievements represent the forefront of the field. Prof. Zhang has published numerous papers in esteemed journals such as Science, PLoS Biology, Genome Research, etc. Moreover, his work has been cited in reviews on the latest advancements in new gene evolution by renowned publications like Nature Reviews Genetics and Trends in Genetics, attracting significant attention within the academic community.

Professor Robert Kuhn has been instrumental in the development and enhancement of the UCSC Genome Browser, a widely used tool for visualizing and analyzing genomic data. His efforts extend to conducting trainings and workshops on how to use the Browser and its associated bioinformatics tools. Prof. Kuhn's engagement with the medical genetics community has facilitated the acquisition of valuable datasets for the Browser while also providing insights into optimizing its utility for the scientific community. Prof. Kuhn’s contributions have significantly advanced our understanding of genomics and its implications for evolution and health.

Professor Shuhua Xu is a Professor of human population genetics, Principal Investigator of the Population Omics Group, and Director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology at Fudan University. He was appointed as a Max-Planck Independent Research Group Leader in 2011, and was supported by both Max-Planck and CAS from 2012 to 2018. Currently, Prof. Xu holds a Distinguished Professorship at Fudan University and a Distinguished Adjunct Professorship at ShanghaiTech University in China. The Population Omics Group led by Dr. Xu is using computational approaches and developing new methods to dissect the genetic architecture of human populations, quantitatively characterize their admixture features, and reveal their migration history and adaptive divergence. Prof. Xu has authored numerous scientific papers published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, PNAS etc. Additionally, he serves as the co-Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Genetics and Genomics.