Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Henan Institute of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

The Henan Institute of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (hereinafter referred to as “the Institute”) may trace its origins back to 1959, when it was established as the Henan Branch of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1962, the branch was restructured into the Henan Institute of Medical Sciences, affiliated to former Henan Medical University. With the merger of three universities in 2000, the Institute was under the administration of new Zhengzhou University. In 2005, it was recognized as a non-profit scientific research entity and became a direct affiliated institution of Zhengzhou University. The current name was adopted in 2007. In 2015, it was designated as Category I public institution. In 2016, a joint doctoral program was launched with University of Texas, USA. In 2018, Zhengzhou University, together with BGI Genomics and BGI Research, jointly established the BGI School of Zhengzhou University, and it is run by the Institute. It offers master programs in Biology and Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2024, the Institute was authorized to confer master degrees in Biomedical Engineering.

The Institute places great emphasis on building a high-level talent team. It has successfully recruited and nurtured top-tier researchers, including one recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Overseas), one Zhongyuan Scholar, one Outstanding Expert of Henan Province, one Zhongyuan Thousand Talents Plan leading talent, four high-level talents of Henan Province, one candidate from the Ministry of Education’s Overseas Postdoctoral Talent Program, one Young Top Talent under the Zhongyuan Talent Plan, five distinguished professors of Zhengzhou University, and more than 20 outstanding PhD researchers.

In recent years, the Institute has undertaken 145 research projects, including major national science and technology programs, defense-related projects, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grants, major provincial initiatives, and municipal collaborative innovation programs, with total funding of 68.14 million RMB. Among these, 12 are national-level projects with a combined funding of 16.99 million RMB. The Institute has also secured 27.79 million RMB in horizontal project funding. It has achieved 15 major scientific outcomes, including three second prizes and two third prizes for provincial science and technology progress, obtained 44 authorized invention patents, published 244 academic papers (including SCI-indexed and Chinese core journals), and released five scientific monographs.

The Institute’s academic impact continues to grow. In 2021, it was awarded a National Distinguished Young Scholar (Overseas) project. In 2022, graduate students from the BGI School published high-impact research papers inNature,Cell, andScience, with many students from the Institute listed as co-authors, drawing wide academic attention both nationally and internationally. In 2024, the Institute published 11 papers in top-tier journals and secured one Major Research Plan Cultivation Project and one Subproject under the NSFC International Collaborative Innovation Team Project.

Rooted in the “Double First-Class” initiative of Zhengzhou University, the Institute is dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration, integration across disciplines, and synergistic development of academia, industry, and research. It actively lays out future-oriented, emerging, and urgently needed disciplines. By leveraging disruptive and frontier technologies, the Institute fosters the development of new industries and models, promotes the growth of new quality productive forces, and contributes to scientific and technological innovation at the regional and national levels.