President
PhD, PhD supervisor, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Professor Zemin Zhang became President of Chongqing Medical University in January 2025. He was previously Director of the Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC) at Peking University. He is also an internationally-recognized professor in cancer genomics, bioinformatics, and tumor immunology.
Professor Zhang did his undergraduate study in Genetics at Nankai University, and then graduate study with a PhD degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Pennsylvania State University, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
After that, he spent over 16 years at Genentech/Roche, where he led the cancer genomics and bioinformatics group, making significant contributions to the discovery of anticancer targets and biomarkers.
In 2014, Professor Zhang returned to China and joined Peking University. Since then, Professor Zhang has applied advanced genomics and bioinformatics approaches to systematically elucidate the tumor microenvironment, revealing the heterogeneity of immune cells and the mechanisms underlying therapeutic responses.
His work has contributed to the development of original bioinformatics tools that facilitate data analysis, integration, and visualization. Professor Zhang has published extensively in Cell, Nature, Science, and Cancer Cell, with his publications being cited over 52,000 times.
Alongside senior leadership role within the University, Professor Zhang has served on many editorial boards of academic journals, such as Cell, Cancer Cell, and Cancer Discovery. He is a Cheung Kong Distinguished Professor and an elected Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, recognizing his contributions to biomedical research and higher education.
