The SMART Investigator Program, established by the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART), is a flagship initiative designed to foster collaborative and synergistic innovation in medical research. Through cross-institutional, cross-disciplinary, and cross-regional partnerships—alongside the development of a globally connected network for scientific collaboration—the program aims to accelerate knowledge exchange and technological integration at the frontiers of biomedicine, cultivating a cohort of scientists with international influence and strategic mindset.
Inspired by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)'s philosophy of "funding people, not projects", SMART provides clinical experts and outstanding scientists with long-term support, enabling them to address challenging problems and dedicate themselves to discoveries that will shape the future. It focuses on breakthroughs in major disease diagnostics and treatment, translational medicine, and cutting-edge biomedical technologies, serving as a core driving force in positioning the Greater Bay Area as a global hub for innovation in medical science and technology.
Building an Open Medical Innovation Ecosystem
Long-term Funding Mechanism: The SMART Investigator Program breaks free from the duration constraints of conventional scientific research funding, allowing ample room for disruptive scientific breakthroughs and technological innovation to flourish.
Dual-Base Collaboration Model: Principal Investigators will be able to leverage respective resources provided by two institutional platforms—their home institutions and SMART—enabling access to clinical resources from China's top-tier hospitals and SMART's research infrastructure, promoting the convergence of clinical medicine and basic research.
Multi-Dimensional Strategic Empowerment Platform: The program synergizes SMART's Clinical Research Center and the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Center (BAY TRIAL) through a dual-center, dual-platform framework, delivering multi-dimensional empowerment for scientific innovation and medical translation.
Building the Greater Bay Area as a Hub for Medical Innovation
Constructing a "Medical Innovation Reactor": The SMART Investigator Program is designed to assemble top clinical talent and foster an innovative research paradigm – "bedside-to-bench side-to-bedside (BBB)"-- in areas such as mental health, oncology, and major chronic and rare diseases. It aims to establish the Greater Bay Area (GBA) as the birthplace of GBA-originated" breakthroughs in biomedicine.
Creating a "Full-Cycle Accelerator for Clinical Research": The program's inaugural cohort of leading medical experts will serve dual roles as both the Senior Investigators at SMART’s Clinical Research Center and Leading Principal Investigators (PIs) at BAY TRIAL. These experts will initiate Investigator-Initiated Trials (IITs) and biomedical research projects at SMART, generating novel therapeutics, devices, and diagnostic technologies that will be clinically validated through BAY TRIAL, enabling efficient translation from lab to market.
Activating the "Research-Clinical-Industry Flywheel": Leveraging Shenzhen's strengths in biomedical research and advantages in industrial clustering, the program fosters a closed-loop bench-to-bedside-to-market pipeline to tackle longstanding bottlenecks in medical translation, bringing life-saving innovations to patients more efficiently through data sharing, technology exchange, and resource integration.
Engaging World-Class Medical Minds to Power the Greater Bay Area's Clinical Research Engine
Professor Shuyang Zhang
Pioneer in Rare Disease Diagnosis and Treatment System Advancing the Implementation of Precision Medicine | President and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and Deputy President of Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
A recipient of the Special Government Allowances of the State Council, she currently serves as Chair of the Rare Disease Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, Chair of the National Commission on Diagnosis and Protection for Rare Diseases under the National Health Commission (NHC), and President of the Cardiovascular Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.
She has received numerous national honors, including the National May 1st Labor Medal and the National March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetter. She has led 16 national and ministerial-level research projects, including those under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s 13th and 14th Five-Year Key R&D Programs.
As first or corresponding author, she has published over 300 SCI-indexed papers in top-tier journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Science, The Lancet, and Nature, with more than 7,550 citations to date.
She is the chief editor of over 20 major academic works, including Textbook of Rare Diseases, Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Rare Diseases (2019 Edition), and Interpretation of the First Batch of Rare Disease Catalog in China. She also founded the core academic journal Rare Disease Research, and serves as editorial board member or advisor for journals including Med and Science Bulletin.
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Professor Yongjun Wang
Architect of Stroke Prevention and Treatment Systems Leader in Global Clinical Research on Brain Science | President of Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University; Chief Scientist, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor of the Neurology Center; Director of National Center for Healthcare Quality Management in Neurological Diseases; Deputy Director of National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases; and Chair of Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Clinical Trial Science, Capital Medical University.
Academic Advisory Committee Member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chair of the Neurology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, President of the Chinese Stroke Association, and Editor-in-Chief of Stroke & Vascular Neurology. He has chaired several expert panels under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to develop national strategic plans for disease diagnosis and treatment, including the cerebrovascular diseases program of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for National Economic and Social Development, major chronic diseases initiative for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), and common and frequently occurring diseases program for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). He is also a core member of China's National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for "Significant New Drugs Development" and a key expert for the "Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Research" project under China's Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Program.
Professor Yongjun Wang's primary research focuses on intervention strategies for recurrent ischemic cerebrovascular disease and disability prevention. He has published over 300 papers as first or corresponding author in leading journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA, BMJ, Circulation, and Science Translational Medicine. His research achievements have twice been recognized among the Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences in China, and he has received the National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize) twice as the first contributor. He has also been honored with the Inaugural National Innovation Award Medal, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation's Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, and the C.C. Tan Life Science Awards (Clinical Medicine category).
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to clinical research in cerebrovascular diseases, he was awarded the William M. Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association—the highest international honor in clinical stroke research—and the Chairperson's Award, the most prestigious accolade from the World Stroke Organization (WSO). He is the first Asian recipient of both of these international awards since their inception.
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Professor Jin Liu
A Leading Authority in Perioperative Organ Protection Pioneering Advances in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine | Chief Physician at the Department of Anesthesiology and Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University; Director of the National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Translational Anesthesiology.
Professor Jin Liu is the founding president of the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology Physicians. He served as the 11th Chair of the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology. He also chaired the first and second terms of the Sichuan Society of Critical Care Medicine.
A pioneer and practitioner of modern standardized residency training in China, Professor Jin Liu is the Distinguished Chair Professor of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and has been appointed the Cheung Kong Distinguished Professorship – the highest honorary professorship in China.
Under his leadership, the anesthesiology department at West China Hospital of Sichuan University has ranked No.1 nationwide for 13 consecutive years in the Fudan University Ranking of Hospital Specialty Reputation in China, and has remained No.1 for four consecutive years in the national rankings of China's Hospital Science and Technology Evaluation Metrics (STEM) in the field of anesthesiology. He was the first in the world to conduct BIS (Bispectral Index) clinical studies and the first in China to initiate and popularized perioperative point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).
As the first principal investigator, he has won a Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. His team's translational research has generated 817 million RMB in new drug development and commercialization. He is the editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal Anesthesiology and Perioperative Science and nine edited volumes, including the Chinese Journal of Blood Transfusion, and has published over 360 SCI-indexed papers.
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Professor Lin Shen
Pioneer in Precision Treatment of Gastrointestinal Tumors Innovator of Clinical Research Paradigms | Chief Physician, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor at Peking University Cancer Hospital; Recipient of Beijing Scholar; Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology Department & Phase I Clinical Trial Unit; Director of Beijing Key Laboratory of Cell and Gene Therapy for Solid Tumors
She holds multiple prominent academic positions, including Chair of the CACA Committee on Precision Oncology, Chair of the CSCO Gastric Cancer Committee, and Vice President of the Chinese Medical Women's Association (CMWA).
Professor Lin Shen's research focuses on precision treatment and translational research for gastrointestinal tumors, as well as clinical development of novel anti-cancer drugs. She has led the establishment of an innovative clinical and translational research system in GI oncology. As the Leading Principal Investigator, she has spearheaded over 100 international and domestic clinical trials, contributed to the approval of 16 drug indications, and played a key role in advancing several China-origin innovative drugs onto the global stage. Her work has led to changes in more than 40 international and national clinical practice guidelines and the entry of 38 drugs into Phase I–II clinical trials.
Professor Lin Shen has published 238 SCI papers as the first or corresponding author in top-tier journals such as Nature, BMJ, JAMA, and Nature Medicine. She was invited by Nature Medicine to present a comprehensive overview of China's current status and future directions in cancer diagnosis and treatment. She has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate and ranked among the world's top 2% of scientists.
In addition to authoring 54 national and international clinical guidelines, Professor Lin Shen holds 18 national patents and has generated over 12.6 million RMB in technology commercialization. Her accolades include the First Prize of the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award and the First Prize of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association Science and Technology Award.
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