Professor Lu Wei, a senior investigator at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the latest Chinese academic to return home amid drastic funding cuts to university research grants by the Trump administration.
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He has taken up a full-time role with the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART), as announced on the organisation’s official social media account on June 3.
SMART president Yan Ning reposted the announcement, commenting: “[Lu] officially agreed to come to Shenzhen long before President Donald Trump’s second term. His research field is fascinating.”
Lu has long focused on the neurobiological mechanisms of synaptic development and functional regulation, as well as the effects of anxiety, depression, anaesthesia and alcohol.
Lu’s relocation back to China significantly bolsters the ambitions of Shenzhen, an open economic special zone, to become a national centre for biomedical research.
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Lu graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from China’s Sichuan University in 1997 and obtained a master’s degree from Zhejiang University three years later.