Academician Zhang Yongmin and Academician Eric Westhof from France Visit China CDC

On March 27, 2026, Academician Zhang Yongmin of the French National Academy of Pharmacy and Academician Eric Westhof of the French Academy of Sciences visited China CDC and delivered invited academic lectures. Wang Jianwei, Academician and Director General of China CDC and President of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, and Xu Jianguo, Academician and Director of the State Key Laboratory, met with the two experts and attended the lecture session. The event was chaired by Li Zhenjun, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, and Wang Xiaoqi, Director of the Division of International Cooperation. More than 150 people attended.

In his lecture, titled Glyco-code: Decoding the New Frontier of Drugs on Life's " Third Chain", Academician Zhang Yongmin focused on carbohydrate based drug development and the latest advances in glycochemistry and glycobiology. He gave a systematic introduction to research achievements in natural product studies, the synthesis of novel glycan molecules, and glyco chemistry and glycobiology related to immunity and vaccines. He also explained the important guiding value of this work for vaccine development strategies.

Academician Eric Westhof delivered a lecture titled "Why is RNA so special?" Using both crystallographic and bioinformatics approaches, he presented systematic research on the dynamic properties and catalytic functions of RNA, and gave a full overview of progress in the study of the relationship among RNA sequence, structure, and evolution.

After the lectures, participants held in depth exchanges with the two speakers on topics including novel glycan molecules and RNA dynamics. The two presentations offered new research perspectives in these fields and provided valuable academic reference for researchers working in related areas.