We are delighted to announce that Haohuai He, a second-year PhD student supervised by Prof. TAN Kay Chen, has been awarded the prestigious 2025 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Youth Student Basic Research Project (PhD students).

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His project, titled "Research on key techniques of target discovery and drug design based on interpretable single-cell analysis," aims to bridge the gap between biological data insights and effective drug development. The research focuses on establishing a computational framework that utilizes interpretable AI to accelerate the data-driven process of drug discovery.

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First piloted in 2023, this NSFC project is a highly competitive national grant designed to support promising young researchers. Notably, 2025 marks the first year that students from PolyU were eligible to apply, making Haohuai one of the first recipients from PolyU to receive this honor. The rigorous selection process involved supervisor nomination, screenings at both departmental and faculty levels, university endorsement, and a final national assessment by the NSFC, which included peer reviews and a defense presentation.

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Congratulations to Haohuai on this remarkable achievement!