Prof. LIU Dongsheng
Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professor, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University
Prof. Liu Dongsheng studied polymer sciences at the University of Science and Technology of China, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1993. For the following six years he worked as a Research Associate in the Institute of Chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, earning his master’s degree in polymer chemistry in 1999. Between 1999 and 2002, he completed his PhD at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, focusing on self-templated DNA circularisation under the supervision of Prof. Albert S. C. Chan. In 2003, Prof. Liu joined the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, collaborating on DNA nanotechnology with Prof. Shankar Balasubramanian. In 2005, he became a Principal Investigator at the National Centre for NanoScience and Technology in China before assuming a full professorship at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, in 2009. Prof. Liu received the 1st Chinese Chemical Society (CCS)–Royal Society of Chemistry Young Chemist Award in 2008, and the 7th CCS–BASF Youth Innovation Prize in 2014. He was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2011, was appointed Changjiang Chair Professor in 2015, and was honoured as a Fellow of the CCS in 2020. His research primarily focuses on the assembly of DNA and its hybrids, hydrogels, and DNA/RNA drugs and delivery.
Dr FU Zhongjie
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
In 2004, Dr Fu Zhongjie received a University Grants Committee Scholarship for Outstanding Mainland Students, and enrolled in the Bachelor of Science programme in Applied Biology with Biotechnology at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. After graduating, Dr Fu pursued a PhD in Ophthalmology at The University of Hong Kong. Her doctoral research focused on investigating the effects of aldose reductase (a key enzyme in the polyol pathway that metabolises excess glucose) deficiency in a well-established mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy, which simulates retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)—a common complication in premature infants. During these studies, she became aware of the importance of altered cell metabolism in retinal disorders. As a Postdoctoral Fellow in ophthalmology at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr Fu continued to investigate the role of nutrient supply and lipid metabolism in ROP and other retinal metabolic disorders. In 2019, she established her own laboratory as an Assistant Professor, where she explores the effects of nutrient supplementation on retinal vascular homeostasis in ROP and studies key modulators involved in retinal lipid processing. Her work aims to advance the current understanding of retinal metabolism and lay the groundwork for translational applications of nutrients in patients with neurovascular retinal diseases.
