On the occasion of the 74th Youth Day in China, Zhong Chao, a researcher from Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was honored the title of "Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Shenzhen" in 2023.
Zhong Chao, a researcher at the Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, also serves as the Assistant Dean of the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology and the Director of the Materials Synthetic Biology Center, Institute of Synthetic Biology. Dr. Zhong has always been dedicated to the cross-disciplinary research between synthetic biology and material science, and is one of the pioneers in the frontier field of material synthetic biology emerging recently in the international market.
Academically, as a front-runner in the 'BT-IT' domain and a pioneer and leader in material synthetic biology, his research results have always been at the forefront of academic discussions, setting the direction for international advancements. He has published over 60 research papers as the corresponding author or the first author in leading international journals, including Nature Reviews Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, and Nature Chemical Biology, of which 11 are Nature/Science sub-journals. He's been granted 2 US patents and 2 Chinese patents, with over 10 additional patents pending internationally and domestically. Dr. Zhong has received the honor of “Scientific Chinese of the Year”. Currently, he is a member of the expert group for the key special project on biology-information fusion under the National Key R&D Program and is the subject editor of the international journal ACS Synthetic Biology, as well as an editorial board member of five other journals. Recognizing his significant contributions to material synthetic biology, he was funded by China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists in 2021. Additionally, leveraging the resources at Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Dr. Zhong, as the director, established the Materials Synthetic Biology Center, leading its research team in pioneering efforts in the intersection of synthetic biology and material science, and promoting the center to be a global research hub in this niche field.
In terms of industrialization, as the founder of Shenzhen PAM2L Biotechnologies Co., Ltd., Dr. Zhong located the company, established in 2021, at the Shenzhen Engineering Biological Industry Innovation Center, actively transforming original scientific achievements into industrial applications. By 2022, PAM2L Biotechnologies has successfully raised fund of over 100 million yuan in its Angel+ and Pre-A rounds, with an estimated value approaching 100 million US dollars.