Chemical biology is an emerging interdisciplinary field where life processes are studied with chemical means. Its core research interest is to use chemical and other methods to intervene and detect endogenous biological processes, as well as to develop new molecules and chemical tools to study life phenomena and develop new drugs.

The Department of Chemical Biology bases on the research capacity of the School of Life Sciences and works closely with the School of Science and the School of Engineering to conduct research in multiple interrelated areas such as organic chemistry, chemical biology, structural biology and quantitative biology. The main research direction of the department is to perform high-level basic research, conduct international cutting-edge and forward-thinking research in key areas, and accomplish a series of internationally leading achievements with significant visibility and influence. In the future, the Department of Chemical Biology will achieve the integrated development of the discipline of chemical biology, actively promoting the transformation of basic research findings related to major human diseases (especially neurological diseases, cancer and major infectious diseases) into clinical research，and applications and developing modern chemical biology with unique characteristics of Southern University of Science and Technology.

In the next five to ten years, the Department of Chemical Biology will recruit innovative talents and establish a core research team with about 15-20 principal investigators. It will effectively recruit and train high-level talents, make full use of existing scientific research platforms, and build a world-class scientific research team.