Introduction

Against the backdrop of China’s strong push for the “AI+” initiative and the development of the bioeconomy, the enzyme engineering field has embraced a milestone moment—on August 30, 2025, in Shanghai, the “AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance (hereinafter referred to as “the Alliance”) was officially launched during the 15th China Enzyme Engineering Symposium. This marks not only China’s first “AI+” industry-academia-research consortium dedicated to enzyme engineering but also signifies that the deep integration of artificial intelligence and biomanufacturing has entered a stage of substantive implementation.

Alliance Inauguration Ceremony

The “AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance

On August 26, the State Council officially issued the Opinions on Further Implementing the “Artificial Intelligence+” Initiative (hereinafter referred to as “the Opinions”). The document emphasized the need to “strengthen collaborative innovation between artificial intelligence and biomanufacturing technologies,” identifying AI-driven breakthroughs in biotechnology as a core task in cultivating new quality productive forces.

The Opinions on Further Implementing the “Artificial Intelligence+” Initiative

In recent years, the 14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomy Development has also highlighted enzyme engineering as a fundamental pillar in building a modern bioindustry system. It explicitly calls for “accelerating the cross-disciplinary empowerment of biotechnology,” promoting the deep integration of AI with the real economy, and driving breakthroughs particularly in strategic emerging industries such as biopharmaceuticals and green manufacturing.

Guided by these two policy frameworks, the establishment of the “AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance becomes a tangible carrier for implementing national strategies. Serving as a crucial layout responding to national priorities, the Alliance aims to solve deep-seated industry bottlenecks. Through top-tier resource integration and full-chain innovation mechanisms, it seeks to build a “national-level technology breakthrough platform” for enzyme engineering and ultimately act as the “execution terminal” of national strategies in this specialized domain.

Core Objectives of the Alliance

The “AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance has set clear goals: to integrate top-tier resources from government, industry, academia, research, applications, and capital; to directly address critical industry bottlenecks such as enzyme data standardization and AI-driven protein design; to bridge the “valley of death” in technology commercialization; and to strengthen international competitiveness.

Mission of the Alliance

Authoritative Think Tank + Benchmark Industry Group = Powerful Lineup

The Alliance is supported by the Enzyme Engineering Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for Microbiology and is spearheaded by Professor Guangyu Yang, Researcher at the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Founder/CTO of Hzymes Biotech. More than 30 leading experts and scholars, together with 18 representative enterprises, jointly initiated its establishment.

Professor Guangyu Yang

Representative Companies from the Industry

To ensure the Alliance’s academic direction remains professional and cutting-edge, an Advisory Committee has been set up. It comprises esteemed experts such as Academicians Zixin Deng, Tianwei Tan, Jian Chen, He Huang, Yugou Zheng, Professors Yan Feng, Haiyan Liu, and Jianhe Xu, who will provide academic guidance and strategic advice for the Alliance’s development.

Alliance Advisory Committee

From Theory to Industrialization: Full-Cycle Support

Within the framework of the “AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance, proof-of-concept plays a crucial role in bridging basic research and industrial application—it is both the “touchstone” for industrialization and a key lever to overcome the “valley of death” in technology transfer.

As an important support system for the Alliance, Li Jizong, Deputy Director of the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center, together with Li Jian, Senior Director of Shanghai Hanover Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Hzymes, hereinafter referred to as “Hanover Biotech”), jointly inaugurated the “Joint Innovation Center.” Leveraging its industry implementation experience, Hanover Biotech will facilitate precise alignment between technologies and market demands.

Unveiling Ceremony of the Joint Innovation Center

From Technological Breakthroughs to Industrial Deepening
A Decade of Accumulation

Through its deep involvement in building the Alliance, Hzymes will open its expertise in large-scale enzyme production and application scenario validation, working with Alliance members to establish a closed-loop system of “AI design – experimental validation – industrial application.”

Since its founding in 2015, Hzymes has focused on overcoming critical “chokepoint” challenges in core raw materials. The company has invested nearly RMB 1 billion in R&D, building six major technology platforms including enzyme gene mining, molecular modification, and high-throughput screening, thereby achieving end-to-end capabilities from gene synthesis to protein preparation. To date, Hzymes has developed more than 3,500 core enzyme raw materials for in vitro diagnostics and biopharmaceuticals, and has filed over 200 patents. The company has established large-scale R&D and production bases as well as marketing centers in Wuhan, Shanghai, Yichang, and the United States, forming an integrated industry chain covering R&D, manufacturing, technical services, and sales. Hzymes has become one of the few domestic enzyme suppliers capable of serving full scenarios across in vitro diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals, life sciences, and global market expansion.

Future Outlook

From national strategy to corporate practice, from academic exploration to industrial implementation, the establishment of the “AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance is equipping China’s bioindustry with an “intelligent engine.”

“AI + Enzyme Engineering” Innovation Alliance Inauguration Ceremony

With the Alliance now launched, the integration of artificial intelligence and enzyme engineering is set to advance to deeper levels. The Alliance will continue to drive intelligent innovation in enzyme engineering, provide a “China solution” for building new productive forces in the bioindustry, safeguard national industrial security, and respond to global challenges in the bioeconomy. Ultimately, it will support the high-quality development of China’s enzyme engineering and synthetic biology sectors.