From April 16 to 18, 2025, the Tomato-Strawberry International Conference 2025 took place in Hangzhou. Jointly hosted by Zhejiang University, Cornell University, and Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology and organized by the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology at Zhejiang University, the conference convened under the co-chairmanship of Professor Liu Chongchi from the Faculty of Synthetic Biology. An international expert in strawberry molecular genetics, Professor Liu gathered top scholars to discuss frontier breakthroughs in tomato and strawberry research, fostering in-depth dialogue between basic science and industrial applications.

As a keynote highlight, Professor Liu presented his major study titled "Research on Regulatory Mechanisms of Vegetative Growth and Reproduction in Plants Using Diploid Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) as a Model", systematically showcasing breakthrough findings.

Professor Liu’s team has achieved pioneering results in CRISPR gene editing, chemical mutagenesis library construction, and efficient genetic transformation systems, establishing a new paradigm for global strawberry developmental biology and precision breeding. They spearheaded the world’s first strawberry spatiotemporal transcriptome database (SGR, eFP) and comparative fruit transcriptome platform (http://www.rosaceaefruits.com), which tracks developmental dynamics of flowers, fruits, and leaves, serving as a global research accelerator.

As the global leader in tomato and strawberry production, China has advanced significantly in research capabilities since Academician Wu Weihua initiated the National Tomato R&D Symposium in 2014. Professor Liu’s leadership underscores China’s dominance in synthetic biology-horticulture integration, facilitating global sharing of wild strawberry models, gene-editing tools, and mutant libraries while contributing Chinese wisdom to high-yield, premium-quality fruit and vegetable development.