Hong Kong Institute of Biomedical Sciences

Professor Lin Wenjie is the Founding Dean of the Hong Kong Institute of Biomedical Research and a globally renowned expert in biomedicine and vaccine development. He holds a distinguished research background from top North American academic and biotech institutions and currently serves as a Visiting Professor at Chung Shan Medical University.

Professor Lin received advanced training at Harvard Medical School under two Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel, focusing on visual neuroscience and fundamental biomolecular research. He was appointed Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School at the age of 24.

After years of research in the United States, he served as Director of the Houston Biotechnology Center, mastering core technologies for genetic vaccine R&D and biomedical industrialization. In 1987, Nobel Laureates Yang Chen-Ning and Charles Kao invited Professor Lin to return to Hong Kong to establish the Hong Kong Government Institute of Biology, where he became its Founding Director. Professor Yang oversaw institutional strategic planning and government coordination, while Professor Kao provided laboratory venues and academic talent support from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Lin officially took office in 1988, fully overseeing laboratory construction, team building and government research project implementation.

Important Clarification: The former Hong Kong Government Institute of Biology was an independent historical government research body with no institutional affiliation or succession to the current Hong Kong Institute of Biomedical Research. Professor Lin is the only academic link between the two institutions, having served as the core leader of both. The site planning and layout he formulated with Professors Yang and Kao laid an important foundation for the development of Hong Kong Science Park and the early biomedical industry in Hong Kong.

Professor Yang Chen-Ning has been Professor Lin’s long-term academic mentor and research partner. The two have maintained decades of academic exchanges since their Harvard years, promoting interdisciplinary integration of physical theories, molecular immunology and vaccine technology, and advancing cross-regional life science cooperation.

Professor Charles Kao collaborated closely in supporting the establishment of the former biological institute. He exchanged innovative ideas with Professor Lin in biosensing andin vivo rapid detection technologies, jointly improving Hong Kong’s scientific and innovation ecosystem.

During his tenure in the U.S., Professor Lin specialized in genetic vectors, oral immune formulations and novel vaccine industrialization. He mastered the full technical chain of modern vaccine design, animal testing and mass production. His development of an oral gastroenteritis vaccine in 1988 was listed in TIME’s Top Ten Inventions of the 21st Century, and he holds multiple global core vaccine patents.

After completing the construction of the government research institute, Professor Lin founded the Hong Kong Institute of Biomedical Research as its Founding Dean. He pioneered a unique technical integration system by combining Western genetic vaccine theories, high-pressure biological lysis technology, and modernized traditional Chinese medicinal processing techniques. He developed optimized processes such as high-pressure prolonged decoction and low-temperature fermentation purification for herbal and edible medicinal materials including deer horn glue, and established systematic parameter rules for active ingredient precipitation and molecular lysis.

Professor Lin led the construction of the Institute’s core synthetic biology laboratory, forming mature technical routes for biotransformation and low-loss green extraction of rare active substances. By integrating Nobel-level frontier theories, advanced Western biomedical technologies and traditional Chinese medicinal craftsmanship, he has built a distinctive interdisciplinary Chinese-Western medicine research system and long-term international academic and industrial transformation platforms for the Institute.