Date: March 15, 2022

Source: Nanfang Metropolis Daily

Zhang Dongmei, a doctoral supervisor and executive vice president in JNU's College of Pharmacy, has been involved in pharmaceutical research since early 2000. Research and development of innovative drug requires unremitting efforts, she believes, and making an initial breakthrough may take years or even longer. Yet Zhang has been working on a piloting and pioneering study in tumor pharmacology and innovative drugs. As a pharmacy researcher, she says research and development is her responsibility, mission and original aspiration.

She has discovered a new function of pericytes – cells present along the walls of capillaries – in regulating tumor resistance and metastasis and the key factors, identifying new targets for the research and development of antitumor drug. Zhang has also found that the first tumor vascular disrupting agents that target pericytes can be a category 1 new potential antitumor drug, breaking through the key technical bottleneck in tumor pericyte-targeting drug research.

In the last 10 years, Zhang has led more than 10 national and provincial projects, including major projects of National Science and Technology on New Drug Creation and Development and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. She has published more than 120 SCI papers in Journal of Clinical Investigation and other journals and been awarded 8 international patents and 10 Chinese. She has received one second prize in the National Science and Technology Progress Awards, three first prizes in the Guangdong Science and Technology Progress Awards and one prize in the Guangdong Ding Ying Science and Technology Award. In additional, while compiling two national planning textbooks and teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses, she has cultivated many pharmaceutical innovation talents, including recipients of Science Fund for Outstanding Youth of Guangdong.

On March 8, International Women's Day 2022, Zhang won the title of 12th Guangdong March 8th Red Flag Bearer, becoming a role model for women in the new era. She believes independence and self-confidence are as important qualities for women as kindness and tolerance. Women can contribute more to society by focusing on their own work and giving full play to their strengths, she says.

（Zhang Dongmei, executive vice president and doctoral supervisor in JNU's College of Pharmacy）