On September 20, 2024, the 4th Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit with the theme of "Gathering Talents in Shanghai for a Better Future" opened in Shanghai. Chen Jining, Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, attended the opening ceremony and launched the 5th "Haiju Talents" Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and Gong Zheng, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, presented gold medals to the winners of the 4th "Haiju Talents" Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.
Professor Lujia Zhang’s research group focuses on the intelligent design of biomacromolecules and the development of high-efficiency biosynthetic systems. His team is one of the earliest and most advanced groups internationally in the field of intelligent computational enzyme design. Addressing two key scientific challenges in enzyme engineering—“precise simulation” and “efficient design”—the team proposed a groundbreaking “Near-Attack Conformation (NAC)-Based Computational Design Theory” and integrated AI technology to establish the “S.M.A.R.T.” (Simulation-Modeling-AI-Rational-Testing) intelligent design platform, combining in silico and wet-lab approaches. This platform has enabled the high-performance engineering of numerous industrial enzymes, earning the team three provincial/ministerial-level First Prizes and two Second Prizes in Scientific and Technological Progress Awards.
Dr. Yinghui Feng joined Professor Zhang’s team in 2021 and has been a key contributor to the enzyme design system. In 2023, she received the Shanghai Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Excellence Award, was honored as a Shanghai Super Postdoctoral Fellow, and won the National Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Bronze Award. Currently, she leads two funded projects: a National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Youth Program and a University Seed Fund.
This project was incubated in 2024 at the “Da Linghao Bay” East China Normal University (ECNU) Incubator, receiving strong institutional support. The team will continue advancing this work to deliver greater contributions to society and national development.
