Dalu was born and raised in Biyang, Henan, China. He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2012. He obtained his M.Sc. from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2015, conducting research in organofluorine chemistry in the group of Professor Qilong Shen. Then he switched his research field to chemical biology and joined the group of  Professor Nicolas Winssinger in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Geneva, Switzerland to complete PhD research on 2020, focusing on design and application of bioorthogonal reactions. He subsequently pursued postdoctoral research at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Oxford, working with Professor Yimon Aye. During his postdoctoral research, he combined optochemical genetics with genetically encoded expansion technologies to systematically investigate how does endogenous reactive metabolites regulate RNA processing in neurons. Dalu joined Department of Chemistry at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as an Assistant Professor in 2026. His research interest lies at the frontier interface of chemistry and biology, with a focus on developing novel chemical biology tools to investigate the regulation and mechanisms of mRNA processing.

Education & Research Experiences

2026 – present Assistant Professor, The Hong Kong University of Science of Technology

2025-2026 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford, UK. Advisor: Prof. Yimon Aye

2020-2024 Postdoctoral Fellow, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Advisor: Prof. Yimon Aye

2015-2020 Ph. D. the University of Geneva. Advisor: Prof. Nicolas Winssinger

2012-2015 M.S. Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. Advisor: Prof. Qilong Shen

2008 -2012 B.S. at University of Science and Technology of China. Advisor: Prof. Zhiyong Wang

Academic Awards

Chemistry Travel Award by Swiss Chemical Society, 2020

Runner up prize for oral presentation in Geneva Chemistry and Biochemistry Day 2020

Chinese government award for outstanding self-financed students abroad, 2018

“Huang Minglong” Chemistry Scholarship, 2012