A special research institute

The Beijing Institute of Life Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "Beisheng Institute") is a special research institute. It is not large in scale, but in the past 20 years, it has become a highland in the Chinese scientific community - not only has it produced scientists such as Shao Feng and Li Wenhui who have made Nobel level work, but it has also nurtured BeiGene, a global pharmaceutical company with a market value of over 300 billion yuan.

The secret lies in its mission since its inception: as an experimental field for China's scientific and technological system reform, exploring cutting-edge basic research and cultivating top talents.

In the autumn of 2022, the Economic Observer interviewed scientists from Beisheng Institute for the first time.

In the office of Yanming Biology, Shao Feng has just received the William Coley Award from the United States, which is the top award in the field of tumor immunology. Shao Feng has multiple identities. He is the academic deputy director of Beisheng Institute and also a co-founder of Yanming Biotechnology.

As early as 2019, Shao Feng was awarded the Future Science Award for his discovery of receptors and executive proteins in human cells that respond to pathogenic endotoxin LPS inflammation. After winning the award, he quickly founded Yanming Biotechnology, hoping to transform laboratory results into innovative drugs in the fields of cancer and inflammation.

The Future Science Award, referred to as the "Nobel Prize of China" by the journal Nature, was initiated by Yang Zhenning and is widely recognized as the most important science award in China. Since its establishment 10 years ago, there have been a total of 14 award winners in the field of life sciences, including Yuan Longping, Wang Zhenyi, and Shi Yigong. From the list of winners, Beisheng Institute is the biggest winner, with the main scientific discoveries of four winners including Shao Feng, Li Wenhui, Chai Jijie, and Zhou Jianmin all completed or initiated here.

Because of the discovery of hepatitis B virus receptor, Li Wenhui became the second scientist of Beijing Institute of Health to win the future science award. When receiving the award in 2022, the prevention and control of the COVID-19 will come to an end. Hua Huian Jianzheng, co founded by Li Wenhui, is struggling to promote the research and development of COVID-19 drugs and hepatitis B drugs at the same time. He walked onto the stage and expressed his gratitude more than ten times in one breath. In addition to his wife Sui Jianhua, teachers, students, and colleagues, he also thanked governments at all levels and this era.

Li Wenhui's award-winning research was successfully transformed at Huahui Anjian. Now, the world's first monoclonal antibody drug in the field of viral hepatitis has been born here, becoming the first source innovative drug incubated from Beisheng Institute.

At Beisheng Institute, there are many people who combine the identities of scientists and entrepreneurs. The director, Wang Xiaodong, became the first Chinese student to be elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences after the reform and opening up in 2004. At the age of 47, he returned to China and founded BeiGene. At the age of 55, I started my own business again and co founded Vitarelon with others.

In January 2026, in Wang Xiaodong's office, he talked to the Economic Observer about the mechanism he had innovatively built for Beisheng, as well as the tuition fees he had paid for entrepreneurship in recent years. He is humorous, open-minded, and loves to joke around.

Why start a business continuously? He said he is an Aries and easily gets hot headed. He gets on a thief's boat when he has an impulse, and once he gets on, he can only overcome difficulties and move forward. Besides joking, he gave another answer: scientists should take the initiative to solve major human disease problems.

Since its inception, Beisheng Institute has carried the historical mission of being an experimental field for China's scientific and technological system reform. Over the course of 22 years, Wang Xiaodong experimented with planting two types of crops here. 'Old crops' are exploring new mechanisms for scientific research and expanding the boundaries of human cognition; The 'new crop' captures the social value of scientific research and connects the path of scientific research transformation.

The market and time have given these scientists generous rewards. In 2021, BeiGene became the world's first biopharmaceutical company to go public in three regions. Now, the market value of BeiGene A-shares has exceeded 300 billion yuan, with a revenue of 38.2 billion yuan by 2025.

After BeiGene, scientists from Beisheng Institute have established several innovative pharmaceutical companies with original achievements. Although they have not yet gone public, the total amount of financing completed in 2022 has exceeded the cumulative direct funding scale of Beijing to Beisheng Institute. This objectively forms a closed loop of local government support for basic research and technological innovation to feed back the regional economy.

This is a special research institute, a group of special scientists - in academia, they delve into the depths and are interested in the entire universe. They strive to solve the most significant and valuable scientific problems, publish heavyweight papers carefully studied by peers, win top scientific awards at home and abroad, and give heavyweight presentations at international academic conferences.

In the industrial sector, they personally step out and engage in close combat with their global counterparts. They taste the sweetness and bitterness of success and failure in the race of new drug creation, which is a life and death story. They survived the industry's cold winter and gained the favor of capital. When following innovation dominates the industry, they push one innovative molecule after another to the clinical and even market.

Their dreams are lofty and can benefit the people. They study cancer, hepatitis B, inflammation, pulmonary fibrosis, and aging ..... The diseases that people fear the most are the scientific topics they love the most.

Why can it shelter 'geniuses'

In June 2025, Rao Yi specifically raised the question of "what advantages did Beisheng rely on to focus on and support young people such as Shao Feng, Li Wenhui, Chai Jijie, Zhou Jianmin, Zhang Hong, Zhu Bing, and Zhang Erquan? Why did Beisheng support scientists like Li Wenhui and Zhang Erquan who have no 'hat' and fewer prominent articles, even during their youth and lower output period

Rao Yi may be the most qualified person to raise this question, as he was one of the founders of the Beijing Institute of Science and Technology and served as the first academic vice director. Of course, he is also the person who knows the answer the most.

Scientific innovation relies on both people and mechanisms. The clearest way to make outstanding young people stand out is to build a system that can block external noise. Beisheng Institute has established three pillars for this system: stable funding and high-level human and technical support, five-year international evaluations, and a pure research atmosphere.

1. Support 'scientific gambling'

This matter is difficult, and it is likely to be a fruitless outcome in the end, "Li Wenhui said to Wang Xiaodong before deciding to return to China. You're not afraid of failure, what are we afraid of? "Wang Xiaodong replied," The office will fully support you

Before 2007, Li Wenhui was already a renowned virologist working at Harvard Medical School. He wants to leave the successful HIV research, because there are many people doing HIV, and the research has been very detailed. He thought that science should be helpful for human diseases, and the larger and more important the diseases that can be solved, the better. Hepatitis B is just such a field, and there are many important problems that have not been solved.

Hepatitis B virus is one of the most serious viruses that afflict human beings. It causes millions of deaths every year, and there are nearly 100 million infected people in China alone. At the same time, the existing drugs can not cure hepatitis B, and patients must take drugs for life. Receptor is the first door of virus invasion. Only by finding it can we understand the infection mechanism of hepatitis B and develop more effective drugs. For over 40 years, countless scientists have devoted themselves to this, but have all returned without success.

Li Wenhui is determined to find the receptor for hepatitis B, which is his ideal "difficult and correct thing". But in the United States, hepatitis B is not at the front of the disease spectrum, and there are few support funds. He returned to China and joined the only research institute that could support him in making this bold gamble.

In 2012, Li Wenhui's laboratory found for the first time in the world that the functional receptor of human cells infected with hepatitis B B virus and hepatitis D virus is sodium taurocholate cotransporter protein (NTCP). This is regarded as the most important and landmark discovery in the field of hepatitis B research in the past 30 years. This discovery has fundamentally changed the technical means for people to study hepatitis B virus, and also made it possible to systematically screen drugs for virus invasion. He won the bet.

Later, Li Wenhui revealed that during the most critical period of the experiment, due to high levels of nervous tension, his arms would shake uncontrollably and he would involuntarily retch while brushing his teeth.

In the year when Li Wenhui discovered the hepatitis B virus receptor, Tang Nan completed postdoctoral research in the United States and returned to China to join Beijing Institute of Health. The reason for choosing Beisheng Institute is twofold: firstly, the research atmosphere here, and secondly, it allows her to do what she wants.

Beisheng respects the personal judgment of scientists and the research direction is determined by them, which is the ultimate attraction for many scientists. Doing truly significant and interesting directions is the dream of many scientists, but even in the United States, many people have to continue their postdoctoral research because it is difficult to apply for funding in new fields.

After returning to China, Tang Nan almost did not continue her research on lung and tracheal development during her postdoctoral period, but instead focused on what she considered to be a more important field: lung regeneration and lung diseases.

The lungs are important organs that sustain life, and diseases that endanger millions of lives, such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pulmonary fibrosis, are closely related to the mechanism of lung regeneration. Before studying abroad in the United States, Tang Nan worked as a doctor for 4 years and was very clear about what lung regeneration research meant. However, lung research was unpopular in the international academic community at that time, with little progress in the past 20 years. The reason is very practical: globally, the majority of people suffering from lung disease are poor, pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to invest, and research funding is also difficult to apply for.

Beisheng welcomes such cutting-edge explorations. Here, Tang Nan chooses to start with lung regeneration. This is a research no man's land, and for several consecutive years, she has had no clue and has never been able to find a breakthrough in her research. But she has a good mentality and believes that as long as the model is built and the basic work is done solidly, she can always find the right starting point.

Perseverance ultimately brought echoes. In recent years, Tang Nan's team has made a series of breakthroughs in the biological mechanisms of lung regeneration and disease, systematically revealing the key cellular and molecular mechanisms of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and making gratifying progress in the treatment of refractory diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis.

2. Give sufficient funds and time

In 2023, the third selection of the Future Science Award will focus on the achievements made by Beisheng. That year, Chai Jijie and Zhou Jianmin jointly won an award, and their achievement was a collaborative research project that they had been working on since joining the Beijing University of Science and Technology.

On a snowy day in 2003, two young people met for the first time at a hotel near New Haven International Airport in the United States. There, Beisheng Institute conducted its first public recruitment interview, and Chai Jijie and Zhou Jianmin simultaneously became the first batch of PI (research leaders) at Beisheng Institute.

Beisheng Institute offered them a very attractive package: 2 million yuan in research funding, 800000 yuan in settling in allowance, and 300000 yuan in after tax salary. During the same period, the annual salary of Peking University professors was less than 100000 yuan.

In addition to the high salary, what makes them more tempted is that these funds do not need to break their heads to compete with others or build relationships. Zhou Jianmin said, "I'm particularly afraid of dealing with people. At Beisheng Institute, I just need to focus on my work

In 2004, the two met again in the red 4-story building of Beisheng Institute. Their laboratories were on the second floor, facing each other. Chai Jijie is a structural biologist who studied cell apoptosis in Shi Yigong's laboratory during his postdoctoral studies. After starting his independent research at Beisheng Institute, he hopes to find a different research direction from the past. Zhou Jianmin is a plant immunologist who is currently focusing on the issue of plant disease resistance that has plagued the academic community for decades. In addition to conducting experiments, the two occasionally chat together, and Zhou Jianmin explains to him why his research direction is important.

Plants, like animals, have an immune system and the ability to resist diseases and pests, which has long been a consensus in the field of botany. But after the 1990s, how the plant immune system fights against pests and diseases, and how it performs biological functions at the molecular level, has become a mystery that scientists have always struggled to solve. After several exchanges, they reached a consensus: conventional research methods have been exhausted, and structural biology methods may be of great use.

In 2019, they completed the discovery and functional analysis of disease resistance bodies for the first time, which is considered a milestone discovery in the field of plant innate immunity. The two have also become a model for scientists to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Although they left Peking University in 2010 and 2012 respectively, they still believe that Peking University has irreplaceable significance for their research career. On the day they won the award together, the person standing on stage to read out the reasons for their award was none other than Wang Xiaodong.

In 2011, shortly after Chai Jijie left Beisheng Institute, young Zhang Erquan moved into Chai Jijie's former laboratory with his new research topic and became the new owner of the place.

Like many scientists here, Zhang Erquan's research in the field of biological rhythms is obscure and complex, requiring a long period of "sitting on the bench". In 2020, he screened cordycepin, which can regulate the biological clock, from nearly 10000 candidate compounds. In 2025, he revealed the core role of a P-ring NTP enzyme called RUVBL2 in regulating the biological clock. At this point, he found the core molecules in the evolution of the biological clock, filling a key gap in the evolutionary path from blue-green algae to human biological clock, which has been a difficult problem that has plagued the academic community for decades.

It was these breakthrough achievements made by Zhang Erquan that made Rao Yi raise the question of 'what the North wants'. Rao Yi believes that if Zhang Erquan's work is further tested by time and verified by the world, it is likely to become the most important breakthrough in China's basic concepts of life sciences so far.

These achievements were gradually made by Zhang Erquan after 9 years at Beisheng Institute. The experimental period for studying circadian rhythms is very long, with one experiment conducted on a weekly basis, while experiments in other laboratories can often be iterated several times a day. He didn't start publishing CNS (short for Cell, Nature, and Science) papers until 12 years after returning to China. Prior to this, he didn't have any external spotlight or a hat on his head. In other domestic research institutes, it is difficult for scientists without "hats" and with few prominent articles to obtain funding, let alone promotion and treatment. But at Beisheng Institute, Zhang Erquan didn't lose anything.

Many scientists have told the Economic Observer that the absence of short-term assessments is a key design of the research mechanism system at Peking University. Scientific research is like digging a gold mine, once discovered, there may be explosive discoveries. But more often than not, people are in the process of digging, and if they insist on delivering results midway, they may hand over phased things, which undermines the systematicity, and many major discoveries cannot be found.

In the words of Wang Xiaodong, scientists rarely achieve true success in the process of exploration, so what scientists fear the most is to put on heavy shackles on this already difficult road: they can only walk this path, not that path; I can only bring two days of dry food, and come back to apply on the third day when I'm hungry... Since I don't know which path to take in cutting-edge scientific exploration, I should choose the best scientists and let them think for themselves which path to take.

3. International peer anonymous review, eliminate personal relationships

First class research conditions and sufficient research freedom must be verified by first-class achievements: scientists at the Beijing Institute of Science and Technology need to undergo international peer anonymous evaluations once every 5 years.

Before the assessment, scientists need to write down their academic achievements, research thoughts, and future plans as materials, which will be sent by their leaders to 10 international peers in their field, who are at least professors from a well-known university. These colleagues need to answer three questions in writing: Based on their past 5 years of work, would this person be able to get promoted in your research institution? Has this person's 5-year research achievements had an impact on your scientific research? Based on his completed work and future research plans, can he become a leading figure in this field?

According to the regulations of Beisheng Institute, the first two questions must be passed during the first evaluation; In the second evaluation, all three questions must be passed.

At Beisheng Institute, scientists do not have a 'iron rice bowl', and about one-fifth of PIs leave due to failed evaluations.

Why design an international peer anonymous evaluation system? Wang Xiaodong said, firstly, to ensure the evaluation level, and secondly, to eliminate personal relationships. If he himself fails the assessment, he will still leave.

The 5-year assessment cycle is already quite long, but many scientists still face pressure.

From 2007 to 2012, Li Wenhui only published one small paper on hand, foot, and mouth disease in the Journal of Biochemistry. The evaluation period is approaching, and his research on hepatitis B receptor has not yet made a decisive breakthrough. After understanding the situation, Director Wang Xiaodong and Academic Deputy Director Shao Feng made an exception to extend the deadline for him.

A few months later, Li Wenhui discovered the key receptor NTCP of hepatitis B virus invading the human body. In the subsequent international evaluation, ten anonymous evaluation letters gave the overwhelming highest evaluation - Li Wenhui pushed forward the research field of hepatitis B virus for at least 20 years. Based on this, Beisheng Institute promoted Li Wenhui from a researcher to a senior researcher, with two levels of salary and funding.

After Li Wenhui, scientists such as Zhang Erquan and Dong Mengqiu have obtained critical buffer periods in similar situations.

4. Unrestricted talent reduction

After winning the Future Science Award, people were surprised by Chai Jijie's resume. He studied papermaking at Dalian University of Light Industry for his undergraduate degree and was assigned to work as an assistant engineer at Dandong Yalu River Paper Mill after graduation, where he worked for four years. He was already 38 years old when he started his independent scientific research path at Beisheng Institute.

Until now, the experience of "from paper mill to scientist" remains a heavy label on him.

People love to hear stories of counterattacks like this, which to some extent reflects the society's emphasis on "first degree". Chai Jijie has also received different opinions. When he was admitted to the graduate program of the Institute of Petrochemical Science from a paper mill, there were 9 students in his class, including 4 from Tsinghua University. The school couldn't believe Chai Jijie's background and sent someone to the paper mill to investigate the situation.

When attending the recruitment interview at Beisheng Institute, mentor Shi Yigong drove him there. Chai Jijie's interview performance was not ideal. A total of 13 candidates entered the final interview, and 6 were successfully selected. He ranked seventh. As usual, during an interview, one is required to present their Future Plan and Research Plan. However, he is not someone who is good at expressing himself, and when it comes to science, he prefers to think and act rather than speak.

Beisheng Institute does not value the existing scientific research achievements of interviewees, but uses these achievements to predict their future development space and potential. Some judges have doubts about Chai Jijie's potential. Finally, Wang Xiaodong asked Shi Yigong, "If Chai Jijie and you work on the same project, how much chance do you give him to win?" Shi Yigong replied, "My winning rate is about 50%

Thus, Chai Jijie joined the Beisheng Institute.

In 2010, Zhang Erquan, who had just completed her doctoral and postdoctoral research in the United States, boarded a flight back to China. Among several interviews, he was most eager for and uncertain about one opportunity, which was the Beijing Graduate School.

The core part of the interview is a one hour public presentation. Zhang Erquan on the podium was too eager to join here. The more she thought about it, the more her tongue became tangled and she stuttered. Sitting below the stage are the most sharp minds in the field of life sciences in China. As he stepped off the stage, he felt that he must have no chance.

The voting result did not go as he expected, and the vast majority of people voted against it.

However, there were two affirmative votes that firmly voted for him.

A photo from Rao Yi, who has been teaching biology clock courses at Peking University for many years and is well versed in Zhang Erquan's research field.

The other supporting vote was somewhat unexpected - it came from Shao Feng, a scientist known for his sharp and picky research on bacterial infections that were far from Zhang Erquan's circadian rhythm.

In their one-on-one conversation with Zhang Erquan, they all noticed that the young man in front of them did understand and had ideas. At that time, Shao Feng, who was still very young, specifically approached the director Wang Xiaodong and requested the recruitment of Zhang Erquan.

After the interview, Zhang Erquan, who felt hopeless, sent an email to Rao Yi asking if he could apply to Peking University. Rao Yi, who was already the dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University at the time, readily agreed. Just as he was about to leave for the interview, the admission notice from Beisheng unexpectedly arrived. He asked Rao Yi, which one should he choose? Rao Yi replied, 'Of course, Beisheng Institute.'. ?

The selection criteria for Peking University students are based on "three no's" - not based on background, not based on academic papers, and not based on academic qualifications. The candidates selected by Beisheng value three things: first, what they have done before; second, what they want to do; and third, whether they can clearly explain what they have done and what they want to do. Wang Xiaodong often says, "We choose people, not just your previous achievements

Su Jun is the youngest PI at Beisheng Institute. This young man, born in 1994, is different from many scientists. He dyes hair of different colors, likes to explore shops and fish leisurely, and does a heavy job in scientific research, but not in hardship haha. He grew up in Hong Kong and studied in Germany. The reason why he came to Beijing is because he believes that there are only conditions in China that allow him to focus on his desired scientific research.

Su Jun has interviewed at Peking University twice, the first time in 2019. He was only 25 years old and had already obtained his doctoral degree with a Science paper. Wang Xiaodong and Shao Feng believe that he is too young. Although he has already achieved good results, there is only one, and it is difficult to see through the interview how much of it comes from his own efforts rather than the help of his mentor.

In 2022, postdoctoral fellow Su Jun left the station and published another Science article, and he once again participated in the interview at Peking University. This time, Wang Xiaodong and Shao Feng didn't ask too many questions related to the topic, but instead asked him what kind of research he would like to do if he went to Peking University? Su Jun replied, "I want to completely jump out of the direction I used to do

This time he achieved his wish.

When he started doing independent research, the young man's laboratory was the same size as the director Wang Xiaodong's and had the same number of student spots. In most domestic research institutes, this is unimaginable.

Intellectual Living Space

At Beisheng Institute, the cafeteria is a scenic spot where food is delicious and comfortable, and many scientific inspirations come from the dining table. The Economic Observer reporter has dined here with different scientists several times and always sees scientists and students discussing issues. Once, Wang Xiaodong walked past with a plate in hand, and no one stopped talking or approached to exchange pleasantries.

The leadership of Beisheng Institute has some commonalities: high academic cultivation and insight, self-restraint, and sharing rather than seizing resources. Wang Xiaodong even transferred the resources of his laboratory to support other PI work. Unlike most academic institutions that lack academic leadership and only have administrative leadership, Beisheng Institute completely separates academic and administrative affairs. At the Beisheng Institute, financial and personnel affairs are handled by the Deputy Director of Administration, while Wang Xiaodong and Shao Feng focus on academia and are responsible for leading everyone to carry out academic activities.

A lot of pressure is on Xiaodong, he's like an umbrella, blocking out the noise outside, "Tang Nan said.

Blocking noise, creating a pure intellectual living space inside, and returning science to science itself - this is Wang Xiaodong's simple management wisdom.

The PI Club every Tuesday evening is one of the most important academic events at Peking University. At this closed door meeting, they take turns presenting their unpublished and interesting topics, and the opinions they receive are mostly critical.

Li Wenhui said, "Some people outside of the school have their eyes wide open when they see our meeting - you are so straightforward

Collisions often occur. Research that has not received any issues or criticism is either uninteresting or not cutting-edge enough. Li Wenhui believes that after the harshest internal criticism and self-criticism, when attending any meeting outside, what he hears is gentle breeze and drizzle.

It is common for scientists to be interrupted on the spot when giving a report. Why did you do this? "" You're not very rigorous here. "" There's insufficient evidence in this step. "" There are too many subjective factors ..... Or, 'You're great, I happen to have a technique that I can collaborate with you on.'. Debates often spread to the dinner table after the meeting, and sometimes someone would say, "Xiaodong, I went back and checked the opinions you raised last time, and found that a certain detail may not be like that

As long as she doesn't travel, Tang Nan will definitely join the PI Club. When it's her turn to give a report, she takes it more seriously than any international conference because her colleagues are more demanding than the reviewers. In her opinion, exchanging one hour of her own narration for dozens of top-notch minds running at high speed on a problem at the same time is the most luxurious brainstorming in the world.

In the audience, colleagues do not consider whether this is a good story, whether it has caught the trend, or whether it can be published in a good magazine. Instead, they look at whether this discovery can withstand scrutiny, whether it will still be mentioned many years later, and whether it is an unavoidable core discovery. According to Jiang Hui, PI of Beisheng Institute, both Wang Xiaodong and Shao Feng are detail oriented, and their questions are sharp and to the point. "It's impossible not to sweat".

Beisheng Institute pursues a scientific taste internally. If we can solve real problems through clever methods instead of relying on resources, everyone will appreciate it very much. On PI Club, if someone shares research without scientific taste, they will be looked down upon by colleagues, which is called peer pressure. Of course there won't be any personal attacks, but I will feel embarrassed: how could I spend so much money on this? "Zhang Erquan said.

Shao Feng is the person who provides the most critical opinions. Zhang Erquan once had a heated argument with him over an academic issue, and the next day she apologized slightly and went to communicate with him. It's okay, I'm just saying what I think is right, "Shao Feng said

A few years ago, Shao Feng shared his work on bacterial autophagy on PI Club, which was very difficult and has now become a classic research in the field of autophagy. At that time, Shao Feng strongly recommended the high difficulty technology developed in this work - converting the difficult to quantify bacterial autophagy levels into quantitative signals that can be analyzed by high-throughput flow cytometry, for whole genome screening. Jiang Hui listened and applied it to his research on mitochondria, which became the most commonly used and core technology in his laboratory.

This kind of intellectual living space not only provides an environment for scientists to focus on research, but also gives students an ivory tower to do well in scientific research and fall in love with it. Beisheng strives to create a small environment where teachers revolve around students, rather than students revolving around teachers, which is highly attractive to students.

In our institution, the status of students is higher than that of PI. ?Zhang Erquan said.

Behind this joke is a serious system design. Wang Xiaodong insists that students must rotate after admission, which gives them the right to choose and puts pressure on the PI.

In traditional laboratories, mentors are the natural rulers, while students are almost in an absolute disadvantaged position. But at Beisheng Institute, due to the mutual selection of students and supervisors, teachers with poor reputation may not be able to recruit students. If a student finds that they do not match their supervisor after entering the laboratory, they can request to switch to a different laboratory, "no question asked".

Oppression has almost no soil for survival, and what grows recklessly is the passion to gnaw on hard bones with teachers.

Beisheng Institute cannot independently award degrees, and students' academic status is affiliated with cooperative universities. Many years ago, there was a school that did not allow doctoral students to have children during their studies. This rule did not encounter any obstacles in the school, but it caused a huge uproar when it was forwarded to Beisheng Institute. A student sent a public email questioning, "We claim to be one of the best research institutes in the country, how could we do such a thing?" Wang Xiaodong publicly stated, "I completely understand everyone, my first child was born when I was studying for a PhD." In the end, this unreasonable rule was exempted at Peking University.

Jiang Hui once served as the dean of the Graduate School of Peking University. In his opinion, there are two core aspects to making teachers revolve around students. Firstly, in terms of system, Beisheng Institute has excluded academicians from wearing a few big hats as professors, and there are also large teams such as associate professors and assistant professors below. At Beisheng Institute, under the guidance of mentors are postdoctoral students and students, and mentors' time can only be spent on students, not on others. Secondly, most teachers at Peking University do not hold administrative positions. Positions such as the dean of the graduate school have always been taken turns serving everyone, and no one considers it an official position, let alone regrets stepping down.

The 'New Crop' of Beisheng Institute

Beisheng Institute is located in the Life Science Park in Changping District, Beijing, about 20 kilometers away from the city center. Standing in the middle section of Science Park Road in the Life Science Park, looking around, you can see two worlds separated by a road: on the west side, there is a red building standing still, which is the iconic 4-story building of Beisheng Institute; On the east side stands a white building, which is the research and development center of BeiGene.

This is the most legendary transformation path of Chinese pharmaceutical innovation. On one side, scientists track the conformational changes of a protein and the circadian rhythm of a mouse on a weekly or even yearly basis; On the other hand, clinical researchers are pushing for the early development and clinical trials of innovative drugs on a global scale in days or even seconds.

The straight-line distance between Beisheng Institute and BeiGene is only one hundred meters. What tightly connects two worlds is the same name - Wang Xiaodong.

On one wall of the red small building hall at Beisheng Institute, there are photos of papers published by the institute, recording scientists' repeated expansion of human cognitive boundaries. There are several inconspicuous photos next to them, which show several companies that have emerged from Beisheng: BeiGene, Huahui Anjian, Yanming Biotechnology, Weitai Ruilong, and Pumu Biotechnology. Wang Xiaodong refers to them as the "new crops" of Beisheng Institute.

The birth of these 'new crops' can be traced back to Wang Xiaodong's return to China.

During the first 7 years at Beisheng Institute, Wang Xiaodong worked part-time in the United States, serving as the co director of Beisheng Institute with Deng Xingwang. On October 1, 2010, 47 year old Wang Xiaodong resigned from his teaching position in the United States. What prompted him to return home was the crisis quietly manifested by Beisheng.

Since its establishment, Beisheng Institute has received stable financial support of 130 million yuan annually from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Beijing Municipal Government. In the first few years, the Chinese economy had not yet developed rapidly, and there were few people in Beisheng Institute. This money was enough to provide scientists with good treatment. After 2008, China's investment in technology grew exponentially, leaving many institutions behind in terms of funding in a short period of time. In order to recruit people from Beisheng Institute, some institutions are willing to promise double salaries and research funding.

The money is not enough, and new sources of funding cannot be seen for a while; People began to flow out, scientists were poached, and the co director and academic vice director also went to Peking University. At that time, there were only two paths in front of Wang Xiaodong, either to give up or to persevere.

Wang Xiaodong's choice came as a surprise to everyone. His mindset was: "You can't be born on the same day and month, you can die on the same day and month

Around 2012, the wave of resignations from Beisheng Institute reached its peak. In early 2026, Wang Xiaodong wrote an article recalling the situation: within a short period of time, 11 laboratory directors had switched jobs one after another. In addition to the seven previous resignations due to other reasons, the laboratory building of Beisheng suddenly became empty.

That was the most difficult season for Beisheng. Zhang Erquan remembers one day in 2012, when the then Deputy Director of Administration, Zhigang, said to him, "Erquan, you have made a contribution!" He didn't understand why, so Zhigang continued, "Your 2 million yuan budget for 'Young Thousand People' has been received. I have transferred it to pay off the water and electricity bills, otherwise we would have had a power outage

After returning to China, Wang Xiaodong thought about many solutions to the crisis. In the end, he chose the most difficult and down-to-earth path: to continue persevering, to continue doing original work that can affect the world, and at the same time, to open up new tracks and enter the main battlefield of the economy.

After making up his mind, Wang Xiaodong decided to redesign a website to break through the long-standing barriers between industry, academia, and research.

When he went off to start a business, he had two ideas in mind:

Firstly, in recent years, Beisheng Institute has continuously made original discoveries in the mechanism of life. Why passively wait for the industrial sector to "catch fish" instead of "building a net" for oneself?

Secondly, why does Beijing need to provide long-term support for a research institute that focuses on basic scientific research? Why can't the scientific research achievements of Beisheng Institute be transformed on site to serve the local economy?

The success of BeiGene has brought a demonstration effect. In 2019, BeiGene's independently developed Zebutinib was launched, becoming the first innovative Chinese drug to be marketed in the United States. Wang Xiaodong said at the time that the biggest significance of this was to prove that "this path is feasible" - BeiGene can do it, and many people can do it in the future.

In February 2026, Wang Xiaodong reiterated this viewpoint to the Economic Observer: "Everyone thinks, 'I'm much stronger than Wang Xiaodong, he can do it, and I can do it too.' That's how many people think. Now, isn't that all the companies are up

The companies of Li Wenhui and Sui Jianhua also started like this.

In 2012, just as her husband Li Wenhui was getting nervous as he gradually approached the answer, Sui Jianhua returned to China from Harvard Medical School and established the Biological Products Center and Antibody Center at Peking University, serving as the director. During that period, Beisheng Institute successively built multiple technology platforms, such as high-throughput compound screening, medicinal chemistry, humanized antibodies, computer-aided design, etc. These platforms crossed the traditional "three no's" boundary from exploratory research in academia to applied research.

The existence of these technology platforms has given Beisheng a conversion advantage. When scientists make discoveries with the potential to solve major diseases, they can take a step forward and create drug precursors that can be socially valued, even to the point of being accepted by social capital.

In addition to the technology platform, Beisheng Institute has also hired lawyers to assist scientists in writing patents and making preliminary plans for the transformation of achievements, so that scientists can minimize pitfalls.

After breaking through the bottleneck, scientists from Beisheng Institute had the opportunity to leave the research institute and enter another real market. Moreover, unlike during the time when Wang Xiaodong founded BeiGene, which was still a barren land in the innovative drug market, they encountered two unprecedented opportunities. Firstly, after several years of rapid development, China's innovative drug industry has provided a fertile ground for the survival of original innovative drugs; Secondly, after years of nurturing, the scientific research of Beisheng Institute has gradually reached the stage of results, and truly original innovative discoveries have been born one after another.

In 2012, after five years of dedicated research, Li Wenhui's laboratory found the hepatitis B virus receptor. This discovery has fundamentally changed the technical means for people to study hepatitis B virus, and systematic drug screening for virus invasion has become possible.

In July 2014, after more than two years of screening and optimization research, Sui Jianhua identified the molecule that would later become Ribavirutamab. Half a year later, with the support of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Huahui Anjian was registered and established.

In the following years, several other colleagues started their own businesses, including Wang Xiaodong and Zhang Zhiyuan who founded Weitai Ruilong (2018), Shao Feng who founded Yanming Biotechnology (2020), Tang Nan who founded Pumu Biotechnology (2020), and Luo Minmin who founded Jianda Jiuzhou (2023). Their headquarters were all located in the Life Science Park, only about one kilometer away from the North Campus.

Tuition fees and fruits

In 2010, Wang Xiaodong and Ouleiqiang, who also had high hopes for the future of China's innovative pharmaceutical industry, hit it off and founded BeiGene together. He also persuaded his student Wang Lai to return to China and join BeiGene. At that time, there were over 4 million new cancer patients in China every year, but there was still no cancer drug of its own. They hoped that BeiGene could make up for the lack of cancer drugs in China.

Wang Xiaodong told the Economic Observer that after founding BeiGene, he had to explore every step from laboratory project approval, clinical trials, registration, production and manufacturing, to commercialization, and paid a lot of tuition fees.

In the early stages of entrepreneurship, the team developed candidate drugs and commissioned German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim to manufacture them. As soon as the sample was sent, the other party returned it, asserting that "it is impossible for it to become a medicine".

If that's the case, the company would have died at that time, "Wang Xiaodong said. But the scientists in the team were dissatisfied and buried their heads in the laboratory, repeatedly verifying with a large amount of data, ultimately proving that the other party's judgment was wrong.

New drug research and development is a costly endeavor. In 2012, the Zebutinib project had just been launched, but almost all the money in BeiGene's account had been spent. In the most difficult month, BeiGene had only over 10000 yuan left in its account, while the company had hundreds of people and clinical trials were still underway. Wang Xiaodong didn't even know what to do next month.

The turning point of the story is not far from the desperate situation. In 2013, BeiGene signed a contract with Merck Serono to transfer the overseas rights of two drugs, in exchange for a life-saving fund of over $400 million. In 2014, BeiGene completed a $75 million Series A financing and became a darling of capital ever since. In 2015, the Chinese government initiated drug review reform. In the following 10 years, China's innovative drugs opened a new era and gradually integrated with the world.

When digging the first hoe, Wang Xiaodong just had the mentality of planting an experimental field and did something that seemed impossible. Many times he just thinks that not starving tomorrow would be good enough. He never imagined that BeiGene would become a star company, let alone that Beisheng would emerge from so many enterprises and have the current atmosphere.

At Beisheng Institute, Wang Xiaodong once said to everyone, "If you haven't died, you don't know how to live

After starting a business, when the company's funds were almost burned out and the pipeline was waiting for more money and people to advance, Sui Jianhua truly understood this sentence.

By the end of 2022, the prevention and control of the COVID-19 will be completed, and HH-120, a class of innovative anti COVID-19 nasal spray drug, which Huahui Anjian spent nearly 300 million yuan on research and development and is about to complete three phases of clinical research, failed to be launched to the market. Due to the leakage of the house, the Chinese innovative pharmaceutical industry will turn from hot to cold after 2022, and a large number of biotechnology companies will face cash flow crises, including Huahui Anjian. In 2023, due to a shortage of funds, Huahui Anjian will gradually lay off 30% of its employees. Just like any great company has had a near death experience, that was our darkest moment, "said Huang Song, co-founder of Huahui Anjian.

In times of crisis, a crucial fund saved Huahui Anjian. In March 2024, Huahui Anjian obtained a financing of 200 million yuan from the Beijing Medical and Health Industry Investment Fund.

On March 16, 2026, the world's first dose of pembrolizumab was administered, truly entering the clinical application stage. This is the first source innovative drug incubated from Beisheng. The original discoveries made in the laboratory many years ago ultimately helped real-life patients, which is the best reward for scientists.

A few days later, the research team of the National Medical Products Administration entered Beisheng Institute to investigate the development of new drugs from scratch. At the meeting, Huang Guo, Deputy Director of the National Medical Products Administration, made it clear that the country will further focus on innovation at the source and support those innovations that emerge from the source.

A person from the drug regulatory system who participated in this survey told the Economic Observer that in the past two years, the focus of China's new drug research and development is shifting from following and imitating in the past to promoting the birth of truly global new drugs. There are two types of Chinese pharmaceutical companies that may have an impact internationally in the future. One is large pharmaceutical companies such as Hengrui Pharmaceutical and BeiGene, which rely on their engineering capabilities to transform innovation into the market; Another approach is to become a truly original and innovative biotechnology company.

Almost all companies that have emerged from Beisheng are like this.

Now, these companies nurtured by Beisheng are accelerating the launch of more innovative drugs from the source. In March 2026, the small molecule innate immune agonist PTT-936, independently developed by Yanming Biological, was approved to carry out clinical research on non muscle invasive bladder cancer in China. In the same month, Pumu Biotechnology, founded by Tang Nan, also announced that its potential global first drug PMG1015 had been granted fast track certification by the US FDA.

Wang Xiaodong did not stop his entrepreneurial footsteps either. After achieving success with BeiGene, he founded Viterrelon in 2018. This time, he has noticed the increasingly serious aging problem in China and hopes that the new company can make a difference in improving the quality of life for the elderly.