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Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), founded in 1924 by the great revolutionary pioneer Dr. Sun Yat-sen, is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. With five campuses across three cities – Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen – and ten affiliated hospitals, SYSU has established a comprehensive academic structure encompassing humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, engineering, agriculture, and the arts. The University is committed to being a comprehensive, research-oriented, and open institution.

Guided by the national strategy of "Four Orientations," the School of Life Sciences focuses on two core areas: "human health" and "seed industry security." It conducts cutting-edge basic and applied research in six main areas: life omics, immunology and aging, microbial engineering and biocontrol, animal health and safety, plant stress biology, and biodiversity. The School is dedicated to cultivating future leaders in academia and industry who possess original innovation capabilities, international perspectives, and the ability to address critical challenges in the life sciences for the nation.

The School boasts prominent academic strengths and distinctive characteristics, consistently ranking among the top life sciences institutions in China. Biology is a national key discipline, while both Biology and Ecology are designated as "Double First-Class" disciplines. Both have been recognized as peak disciplines in the Ministry of Education's discipline assessment, with Biology and Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetics ranked among the top 0.1% globally by Essential Science Indicators (ESI). The School is home to several national and provincial-level research and teaching platforms, including the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, the China-ASEAN Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Mariculture Technology, the South China Sub-center of the National Center of Technology Innovation for Pigs, the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, and the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Biology. The establishment of the Innovation Center for Evolutionary Synthetic Biology in 2024 marks a significant milestone in the field of synthetic biology, injecting new momentum into the School's sustainable development.

The School steadfastly implements the fundamental task of "fostering virtue and morality" in education. It has pioneered the "MINE" concept for undergraduate talent cultivation and the "FINE" paradigm for graduate training. A coherent curriculum spanning bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs emphasizes a strong foundation, interdisciplinary integration, and extensive practical experience, fostering an educational model that integrates ideological and political education into biological courses. The "Master Mentoring" program provides personalized guidance throughout students' academic journey, leveraging resources from domestic and foreign universities, enterprises, and nature reserves to ensure exceptional teaching quality. Through research training courses, personalized training plans are tailored for undergraduates to cultivate independent learning abilities. In recent years, Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Ecology have all been selected as national first-class undergraduate programs under the "Double Ten Thousand Plan." Biology was included in the first cohort of disciplines under the "Strengthening Basic Disciplines Plan," and Biological Sciences was selected for the national "Top-notch Talent Cultivation Plan." The School has received two second prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Award for Higher Education and boasts three national first-class undergraduate courses. Undergraduate students have consistently achieved remarkable success, including winning multiple gold medals at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) and first prizes in the China Undergraduate Life Sciences Competition. Two alumni have been elected as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, highlighting the School's outstanding achievements in talent cultivation.

The School currently has 145 full-time faculty members, including 75 professors and 32 national-level talents, with two serving as chief scientists in the national agricultural industry system. In recent years, the School has undertaken over 40 major national projects, with total research funding exceeding 1 billion Yuan. It has received five National Natural Science Awards and nine first-class provincial and ministerial awards, and has published numerous high-impact research articles in top international journals, including Nature, Cell, and Science and their affiliated publications. Guided by major scientific and technological challenges and national needs, the School actively promotes the translation of research into practical applications in areas such as aquaculture breeding, poultry and livestock farming, and plant resource utilization. A single research achievement has generated 120 million Yuan in technology transfer revenue. The establishment of four new joint laboratories with enterprises further enhances the transformation of research findings and drives technological innovation. The School is committed to contributing to the revitalization of the seed industry, promoting rural revitalization, and serving national strategies and local economic and social development.