Professor Chen Jia of the School of Life Science and Technology (SLST) at ShanghaiTech University has been named a recipient of the 2026 Xplorer Prize, becoming the first faculty member in the university’s history to receive the award. He is also one of five awardees in the Medical Sciences category this year.
The 2026 Xplorer Prize was announced in Beijing on August 24 by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting basic science and frontier research. Established in 2018, the Xplorer Prize is a major Chinese award recognizing young scientists in basic science and frontier technologies. Each recipient receives a total of RMB 3 million in unrestricted funding over five years. This year, 50 young scientists were selected across 10 fields.
Chen is a tenured professor at ShanghaiTech and director of the Gene Editing Center. His research focuses on DNA repair, gene editing, and gene therapy. In April, Chen and collaborators from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Fudan University, and CorrectSequence Therapeutics published in Nature the clinical results of a phase 1 trial of CS-101, an ex vivo base-editing therapy for β-thalassemia. The study reported the world’s first clinical data from an ex vivo base-editing therapy to enter clinical trials.
Chen’s receipt of the Xplorer Prize highlights his original contributions to gene editing and DNA repair and marks another milestone in the development of life sciences research at ShanghaiTech. As the university’s first Xplorer Prize recipient, his achievement also reflects ShanghaiTech’s commitment to supporting young researchers and advancing research frontiers.