THREE scientists from Shenzhen have earned this year’s National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars award, according to information released by the National Natural Science Foundation on Tuesday.

The three young talented workers are Liu Xinyuan, Zhang Zheng, both from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), and Liu Chenli with Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A total of 300 received the fund this year, according to Shenzhen Economic Daily.

The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars supports young scholars who have made outstanding achievements in basic research. They will then select their own directions to conduct creative research, so as to speed up the growth of young scientific talent, encourage overseas talented workers and foster a group of prominent academic pacemakers in the forefront of world science and technology.

Professor Liu Xinyuan joined the Department of Chemistry of SUSTech in 2012. His research interests are focused on transition-metal and organocatalyst-catalyzed organic chemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, organofluorine chemistry and the application of chemistry in biological and medicinal chemistry.

He has published more than 40 research papers in international journals, including Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Chemical Communications, Organic Letters, Chemistry – A European Journal and ACS Catalysis. He has also had up to 1,300 citations to his research papers.

Zhang’s research focuses on the immunopathogenic mechanism and immunotherapy of viral infectious diseases. Amid the epidemic, Zhang’s team cooperated with another team from Tsinghua University led by Professor Zhang Linqi to comprehensively and systematically analyze the reaction of antibodies in COVID-19 confirmed patients and those in recovery.

The team successfully isolated more than 200 strains of monoclonal antibodies against the coronavirus, some of which demonstrated a highly effective neutralizing ability against the virus.

The research interest in Professor Liu Chenli’s lab currently focuses on bacterial cancer therapy, bacterial cell cycle and directed evolution.

(Wang Jingli)