Chinese Scientist Nieng Yan Assigned as Director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory

Well known Chinese structural biologist Nieng Yan was appointed as the director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory on March 22.

Public information shows that the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory is a key strategic deployment for Guangdong Province and Shenzhen to build leading international and domestic science and technology innovation centers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is located in Guangming Science City with a planned total building area of 400,000㎡.

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With a view on the global science and technology frontiers and its mission to support China’s National Strategic Plan layout, the institute is committed to solving major scientific problems collaboratively. Focusing on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, metabolic syndromes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and other major diseases, it features BT+IT integration and multidisciplinary collaborations to develop strength in Bioinformatics, Innovative Drug, Biomedical Engineering, and other biomedical fields.

Nieng Yan will continue to serve as the president of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (to be established) while concurrently serving as the director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. In November of last year, at the 2022 Shenzhen Global Innovative Forum of Talents, Yan announced her resignation from Princeton University and became the founding president of Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation, which aroused widespread discussion at the time.

This time, at the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory staff meeting, Yan expressed her willingness to work together with all the staff of the laboratory and friends from all walks of life who care about the development of the laboratory to overcome difficulties and strive to build a world-class scientific research institution.

Nieng Yan’s lab has been mainly focusing on the structural and functional study of membrane transport proteins exemplified by glucose transporters and Na+/Ca2+ channels, which provided a molecular basis for understanding the pathogenesis of related diseases and drug development.

Her scientific research achievements are even more remarkable. Since 2009, as a correspondent author, she published 19 papers in Nature, Science and Cell, some of the most influential top academic journals in the world. Her research has also been listed as runners-up to “Breakthrough of the Year” by Science in 2009 and 2012.