Enkai Therapeutics Founder Professor Tian Zhigang Awarded the 13th Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chinese Society for Immunology

From November 6 to 9, 2025, the 17th Chinese National Immunology Academic Conference was held in Chongqing. Professor Zhigang Tian, founder of Shanghai Enka Cell Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Enka Cell"), was awarded the 13th Chinese Society for Immunology Academic Award - Lifetime Achievement Award. The Chinese Society for Immunology was approved by the State Science and Technology Commission and established in October 1988, being a national first-class medical society. The Chinese Society for Immunology Academic Award was established in 2008, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Distinguished Scholar Award, and Young Scholar Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to one recipient per session to honor scholars who have made outstanding contributions to the development of immunology in China. So far, only 13 individuals, including Professor Zhigang Tian, have received this honor.

Zhi-Gang Tian is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He has worked at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and he is the founder of the immunology discipline at USTC as well as the founding editor-in-chief of the internationally prestigious immunology journal *Cellular & Molecular Immunology*. He was one of the 16 executive committee members of the International Union of Immunological Societies, the Secretary-General of the 17th International Congress of Immunology, and the President of the Chinese Society for Immunology. Professor Tian has been engaged in NK cell research for over 30 years and is a leading figure in the global NK cell research field. He was among the first in the world to initiate research on tumor immunotherapy targets based on the principles of NK cell immune recognition and has developed a series of original antibody-based protein drugs derived from NK cell receptors and ligands. As the corresponding author, he has published over 400 SCI papers in journals such as *Cell*, *Immunity*, and *Nature Immunology*. In the past decade, his number of papers with "NK cells" as the keyword ranked first globally. These achievements have become the "source of inspiration" for subsequent translational research in immunotherapy. He has received three national-level awards (Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award in 2008, Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2012, and First Prize of the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Award in 2017), as well as other significant honors such as the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress and the Zhongyuan Accord Achievement Award in Life Medicine.

As an internationally renowned immunologist and a global leader in the NK cell field, Professor Tian Zhigang has established a comprehensive NK cell research system: He pioneered the original "regional immunity" theory, reshaping the understanding of immunology; discovered the liver-specific CD49a+NK cell subset and its immune memory function, deciphered the mechanism of NK cell exhaustion, paving new directions for the study of liver diseases and immunotherapy; and by developing an in vitro expansion technology for NK cells, opened a window of life for patients with solid tumors such as liver cancer and lung cancer.

In March 2020, Professor Tian Zhigang, along with his core team, established Enka Therapeutics to focus on innovative NK cell therapy technologies. With over 30 years of academic accumulation, they have transformed this knowledge into industrial momentum, primarily targeting the exploration of cutting-edge NK cell technologies and original intelligent NK cell products in preclinical and clinical translational research. Enka Therapeutics has now been awarded the title of "Shanghai Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprise.""Shanghai Science and Technology SMEs""Shanghai Specialized, Precise, Unique and Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprise," with more than 20 authorized domestic and international invention patents, 2 NK cell products successively obtaining US FDA and China CDE clinical trial (IND) approval, and key product pipelines conducting multiple preclinical or clinical studies in an orderly manner.

From Lab to Clinical Application: The Transformation of Achievements. Professor Zhigang Tian has long been devoted to the research of innovative NK cell therapy technologies, successfully transforming theoretical studies into technological achievements. Professor Tian is committed to the research of innovative scientific technologies throughout his life, contributing to the rapid development of China's immune cell technology. Under the guidance of Professor Tian, Encyte will continue to advance fearlessly on the path of immunological innovation, accelerate the promotion of product pipelines and clinical research, and bring more and better immunotherapy drugs to patients, allowing China's innovative immune cell therapy to lead globally.