Dr Shuofeng Yuan (Hong Kong, China) is the winner of the 2024 FAOBMB Young Scientist Award (Male)
Dr Shuofeng Yuan
Department of Microbiology, University of Hong Kong, China
Shuofeng Yuan was trained as a veterinarian before pursuing his PhD degree in virology and immunology. He is now an Assistant Professor in Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong. By focusing on small-molecule and broad-spectrum antivirals that are essential for pandemic preparedness, his career goals aim to reveal new targets, strategies, and lead compounds against infectious virus diseases through basic and applied research in the broad field of molecular virology. In his pursuit of host targets such as sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBP), adaptor-related protein complex 2 subunit Mu 1 (AP2M1), and phosphomannose isomerase (PMI), new concepts have been established and harnessed to reprogram host metabolism and develop host-targeting therapeutic treatments against viral pathogens.
Dr. Yuan has filed more than 10 patents with novel antivirals for emerging infectious diseases including Influenza, Zika and COVID-19. He has been consistently recognized by Clarivate Analytics’ Essential Science Indicators as a top 1% scholar and global “Highly Cited Researcher” for three consecutive years since 2021. He has published over 50 first/co-first/corresponding-authored original research articles in leading journals including Nature, Science and Lancet. He received several prestigious research awards, including the Dalton Horizon Prize (The Royal Society of Chemistry, UK), MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (Asia Pacific), and Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macao) of China NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China).