Education

Sep 2010 – Jun 2014, Department of Automation, Tongji University, Bachelor’s degree

Sep 2014 – Aug 2020, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Ph.D. degree

Professional Experience

Sep 2024 – Present, Deputy Director, Institute of TCM-X, Tsinghua University

Dec 2025 – Present, Associate Researcher, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University

Feb 2023 – Dec 2025, Assistant Researcher, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University

Sep 2020 – Mar 2023, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University

Academic Appointments

Member, Youth Committee, China Association of Chinese Medicine

Executive Director, Specialty Committee of Network Pharmacology, World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies

Editorial Board Member / Young Editorial Board Member, WJIM (World Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine), Chinese Medicine and other journals

Research Interests

1. AI for network medicine and network pharmacology

2. AI for traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

4. AI-based gastric cancer prevention

Research Overview

His research focuses on TCM AI, network pharmacology, and intelligent health. He has long been engaged in research on TCM AI algorithms and their application to the exceedingly-early integrated TCM–Western medicine prevention and treatment of gastric cancer, and serves as a mentor of the “Digital Biology and Intelligent Health” individualized education program at Tsinghua University. As PI of projects and sub-projects, he has led vertical (government-funded) research projects with cumulative funding exceeding RMB 12 million, including the NSFC Young Scientists Fund (Category B, formerly the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars).

[1] National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, Jan 2027–Dec 2029, ongoing, PI;

[2] Ministry of Education (MOE), Discipline Breakthrough Pioneer Project, “Discipline Breakthrough Pioneer Project on TCM Prevention and Treatment of Multisystem Comorbid Diseases” (sub-project), Sep 2025–Aug 2030, ongoing, PI;

[3] National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), National Multidisciplinary Innovation Team Project of TCM, “Research on an AI-Based TCM Prevention and Treatment System for Gastritis-to-Gastric-Cancer Transformation” (sub-project), Jun 2025–Aug 2028, ongoing, PI;

[4] Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission / Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star Program (under the Beijing High-Level Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talent Support Program), “TCM AI Interdisciplinary Technologies and Applications Based on Biological Networks”, Jun 2026–Jun 2029, ongoing, PI;

[5] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Young Scientists Fund (Category C), ongoing, PI;

[6] National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), TCM Principle Elucidation Program, “Drafting of Expert Consensus on the Application of Network Pharmacology to the Research and Development of New TCM Drugs”, Dec 2023–Dec 2024, ongoing, PI;

[7] Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Support Program, 2021 cohort, completed, PI;

[8] Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), National Key R&D Program, Young Scientist Project, Nov 2023–Oct 2027, ongoing, PI of the research sub-project.

[9] Tsinghua University, Young Faculty Original Research Project, May 2025–May 2026, ongoing, project leader

Awards & Honors

Science & Technology Awards:

[1] First Prize of the Science and Technology Award of the China Association of Chinese Medicine (2nd contributor, 2025)

[2] First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, Beijing Science and Technology Award (8th contributor, 2024)

[3] International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva — Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury (highest distinction; 2nd contributor, 2024)

[4] International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva — Gold Medal (2nd contributor, 2024)

[5] First Prize of the International Contribution Award for Traditional Chinese Medicine (4th contributor, 2021)

[6] Top 10 Academic Advances in Traditional Chinese Medicine (2024)

[7] Top 10 Applications of Bioinformatics in China (2019)

Personal Honors

[1] Recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars

[2] Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star

[3] Tsinghua Shuimu Scholar

[4] Tsinghua Zidong Scholar

[5] National Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Support Program

Academic Achievements

Guided by the network target theory, he developed a series of high-precision AI algorithms for cross-level (macro–meso–micro) network inference of disease–syndrome relationships. He was the first to discover exceedingly-early gastric cancer (EEGC) as a novel stage that characterizes the critical state of gastritis-to-gastric-cancer transformation, together with its features and biomarkers in both traditional Chinese and Western medicine, cracking the challenge of early warning of gastric cancer onset — a discovery commented as “notably” in a Nature paper (Nature 2023;618:383-393). He then built an integrated TCM–Western medicine intelligent prevention and treatment system for exceedingl -early gastric cancer, which has been deployed in high-incidence gastric cancer regions across China and in more than 80 institutions nationwide, significantly improving the integrated TCM–Western medicine prevention and treatment of gastritis-to-gastric-cancer transformation. He has published over 20 papers in high-profile international journals including Nature Methods, Cancer Discovery, Nature Communications, Cell Reports, and STTT, with publications selected as a cover article in a Lancet family journal, an F1000 exceptional paper, and an ESI Hot Paper (top 0.1% globally). He has co-authored 2 textbooks and holds 3 granted Chinese invention patents (all commercialized) and 1 Japanese invention patent.

Selected Representative Publications (* co-first authors):

1. Zhang P*, Gao C*, Hua K, Zhang ZY, Li S. Systematically decoding pathological morphologies and molecular profiles with unified multimodal embedding. Nature Methods 23, 903–908 (2026). (Reported by Xinhua News Agency and NSFC)

2. Zhang P, Zhang Q, Li S. Advancing Cancer Prevention through an AI-Based Integration of Traditional and Western Medicine. Cancer Discovery 2024;14(11):2033-2036. (The first TCM-themed paper published in this journal)

3. Zhang P*, Gao C*, Zhang Z, Yuan Z, Zhang Q, Zhang P, Du S, Zhou W, Li Y, Li S. Systematic inference of super-resolution cell spatial profiles from histology images. Nature Communications. 2025;16(1):1838. (ESI Highly cited paper)

4. Zhang P, Yang M, Zhang Y, Xiao S, Lai X, Tan A, Du S, Li S. Dissecting the Single-Cell Transcriptome Network Underlying Gastric Premalignant Lesions and Early Gastric Cancer. Cell Reports. 2019 May 7;27(6):1934-1947.e5. (>500 citations in Google Scholar, F1000 ‘Exceptional’ Paper; one of the Top 10 Applications of Bioinformatics in China 2019)

5. Zhang P*, Zhang DF*, Zhou WA*, Wang L, Wang BY, Zhang TY, Li S. Network pharmacology: towards the artificial intelligence-based precision traditional Chinese medicine. Brief Bioinform. 2023 Nov 22;25(1): bbad518. (>800 citations in Google Scholar; ESI Hot Paper, top 0.1% globally; highly cited paper; most-read article of the journal)

6. Zhang P, Li S. Human cross-tissue cell atlases: unprecedented resources towards systematic understanding of physiology and diseases. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2022 Oct 5;7(1):352. (Research Highlight)

7. Zhang P, Wang B, Li S. Network-based cancer precision prevention with artificial intelligence and multi-omics. Science Bulletin. 2023;68(12):1219-1222.

8. Guo JC*, Zhang P*, Zhou L*, You L*, Liu QF, Zhang ZG, Sun B, Liang ZY, Lu J, Yuan D, Tan AD, Sun J, Liao Q, Dai MH, Xiao GG, Li S, Zhang TP. Prognostic and predictive value of a five-molecule panel in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: A multicentre study. EBioMedicine. 2020 Apr 28;55:102767. (Cover paper)

9. Hou S*, Zhang P*, Yang K*, Wang L, Ma C, Li Y, Li S. Decoding multilevel relationships with the human tissue-cell-molecule network. Brief Bioinform. 2022 Sep 20;23(5):bbac170.

10. Zhang F*, Zhou Z*, Zhang P*, Li S. Multi-Omics Meets Premalignancy: Paving the Way for Early Prevention of Cancer. Research (Wash D C). 2025;8:0930.

Invention Patents

[1] Li Shao, Zhang Peng. Exceedingly-early gastric cancer cell markers and their application in diagnostic kits. China, ZL202080001970.7. (Commercialized)

[2] Li Shao, Zhang Peng. Molecular markers for determining the risk of Exceedingly-early gastric cancer onset and assessing the progression risk of gastric precancerous lesions, and their application in diagnostic kits. China, ZL 202111236948.3. (Commercialized)

[3] Zhao Yupei, Li Shao, Guo Junchao, Zhang Peng, Zhou Li. Application of a combined biomarker in the preparation of a prognostic judgment kit for pancreatic cancer, as well as its determination system and method. China, ZL 201611038981.4. (Commercialized)

[4] Li Shao, Zhang Peng. Molecular markers for determining the risk of ultra-early gastric cancer onset and evaluating the progression risk of gastric precancerous lesions, and their application in diagnostic kits. Japan, 2024-524380.