Research Center

Zhou Tianhua (Chief Scientist) has the title of “The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars”, and serves as a Distinguished Professor of Zhejiang University and a PhD supervisor. He is currently the Vice President of Zhejiang University, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Medicine, President of the Medical Cell Biology Branch of the Chinese Society of Cell Biology, a leading scientist of the National "Ten Thousand People Plan", a leading scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and a leading scientist of the Ministry of Education. He is a recipient of the "New Century Excellent Talent Program" of the Ministry of Education. He is mainly engaged in the research on the molecular regulation mechanism of cell motility and cell cycle and its role in the development of gastric cancer. He has explored the important regulatory mechanisms of cytoskeleton, selective autophagy involved in ciliogenesis; discovered important new members of WNT/β-catenin pathway and its mechanism in tumor; and discovered key gastric cancer cell metastasis-related LncRNA for the first time, revealing a new mode of genetic information transmission and its new mechanism of regulating gastric cancer metastasis. He has published high-quality papers in Cell Research, Gastroenterology and other journals, which have received wide attention from related fields at home and abroad.

Wang Kai (Senior Scientist) is a professor, chief physician and doctoral supervisor. He is currently the President of the Fourth Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, the leader of Respiratory Medicine Center / Lung Tumor Center - Discipline, and the leading health talent of Zhejiang Province. He is also the editorial board member of Cancer Letters, the director-designate of the Lung Cancer Special Committee of Zhejiang Anti-Cancer Association, and the deputy director of the Respiratory Disease Branch of Zhejiang Medical Association. He is mainly engaged in clinical and basic research on immunotherapy of lung cancer. He discovered for the first time that IL-15 can induce high thiol expression in NK cells and enhance the tolerance of NK cells to oxidative stress through the activation of thioredoxin system, thus enhancing the therapeutic effect on lung cancer; led the national phase I/III multicenter clinical study of the national class I new drug mevalatinib, and found that mevalatinib is the preferred treatment option for patients with combined EGFR-sensitive mutations. He has undertaken 2 major projects of national new drug creation, 4 projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China and many other projects in Zhejiang Province, and published many high-quality papers in international famous journals such as J. Clin. Investig, Nano today and Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Cui Rutao (Senior Scientist) is a Qiushi Chair Professor at Zhejiang University. From 2015 to 2020, he was Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Professor of Dermatology, Associate Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and Director of the Melanoma Center at Boston University School of Medicine. Since 2007, he has been a lecturer at Harvard University, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago, and an assistant professor at Tufts University, and was promoted to associate professor in 2010. He has long been involved in skin disease and tumor research, mainly in the development of new targeted drugs for melanoma, as well as exploring the biological mechanisms of pigment growth and melanoma development. To date, he has published 38 SCI papers, including Cell, Nature, Molecular Cell and Nature Communications. The cumulative IF scores are nearly 380. He is currently undertaking one key R&D project of MOST and one regional innovation (key) project of Foundation Committee. He has received seven NIH/NCIRO1 grants, two from the American Cancer Society, one from the U.S. Department of Defense, one from the Melanoma Research Foundation, one from the Harry Lloyd Research Foundation, and one from the Elisa U. Pardee Foundation as a project leader. He has received two U.S. patents and is a Life Fellow of the American Cancer Society.

Ji Hongbin (Senior Scientist) is a professor and has the title of “The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars”. He has long been engaged in the research of molecular mechanism of lung cancer pathogenesis, and has made international cutting-edge work in the identification of lung cancer driver genes and transdifferentiation of lung adenosquamous carcinoma. He has published more than 140 papers in Nature, Cancer Cell, Nature Genetics, J Clin Oncol and other journals, with more than 14,000 citations. He has received many awards, including the "Hundred Talents Program" of CAS (2007), "Pujiang Talent Program" of Shanghai (2008), the Second Prize of Shanghai Medical Science and Technology (2011), the Outstanding Young Scientific and Technological Innovator of CAS Shanghai Branch System (2012), and the Second Prize of Shanghai Science and Technology Progress (2013). Second Prize of Shanghai Science and Technology Progress (2013); National Outstanding Youth Fund (2013); The 7th Shanghai Young Scientist (2014); Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leader (2014); Young Science and Technology Innovation Leader of Ten Thousand People Plan (2017). He is an associate editor of Journal of Genetics and Genomics, an editorial board member of British Journal of Cancer, Thoracic Cancer, Chinese Journal of Oncology, Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer, and a member of Lung Cancer Professional Committee and Tumor Metastasis Professional Committee of Chinese Anti-Cancer Association.

Zhang Cheng (Senior Scientist) is a special physician, professor and doctoral supervisor at Zhejiang University. He mainly conducts research on urological diseases and oncology, molecular targeting therapy. He has undertaken three projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and one key project of Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation, and has received several provincial science and technology awards. He is a reviewer of World Journal of Urology and Cancer medicine, and has published nearly 40 papers in Cancer Cell, Molecular Cancer, European Urology and Oncogene.