On Aug. 23, 2025, award-winning HIV scientist Shan Liang, a tenured associate professor at the Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine), has taken up a full-time role in Shenzhen, southern China’s tech and innovation hub.

He has joined the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART) as a senior researcher and will head its Institute of Human Immunology, according to an announcement on SMART’s official social media account on August 15. Shan has dedicated himself to studying the mechanisms of immunobiology of HIV infection and developing strategies to combat the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or Aids.

Breakthroughs led by Shan include probing the function of the CARD8 inflammasome – a natural alarm system found inside human immune cells that recognises active HIV protease and triggers a programme to eliminate the infected cell. These findings could potentially identify a way to eradicate latent HIV infection.

Shan is at least the third senior researcher to have moved to SMART this year from a top US institution, suggesting that China’s research institutions have become more appealing for global talent. On May 26, SMART announced that pioneering neuroscientist Dan Yang – a member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences who previously worked at the University of California, Berkeley – would lead its sleep and consciousness research group.

Less than one month later, Lu Wei – a senior investigator specialising in the neurobiological mechanisms of synaptic development and functional regulation – left the US National Institutes of Health to join SMART, amid drastic funding cuts and hiring freezes directed by the White House.