Professor Du’s research has focused on drug discovery and development, high-throughput screening technologies, crystal-form engineering of chemical drugs, and the modern pharmacological evaluation of natural products, with particular emphasis on therapeutics for infectious diseases and stroke. Through leadership of major national research programmes, he contributed to the establishment of a large-scale high-throughput drug-screening platform in China and to the development of screening methodologies, protein-chip technologies, and preclinical evaluation systems for candidate therapeutics, including those targeting ischaemic stroke. His research has also addressed therapeutic strategies during major public-health emergencies, including SARS in 2003 and COVID-19 in 2020. His clinical research on key therapeutic agents for COVID-19 applied evidence-based medical approaches and was recognised among China’s Important Medical Advances of 2020. He has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed publications in journals including The Lancet, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, Small, and Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and holds more than one hundred authorised patents in China and internationally. His contributions have been recognised through two National Science and Technology Progress Awards (Second Prize, as first completer) and more than ten Provincial/Ministerial Science and Technology Awards. He was also recognised as an Outstanding Scientific and Technological Worker in the National Fight against SARS in 2003 and as an Outstanding Individual in the National Science and Technology System’s Fight against COVID-19 in 2021. Collectively, his work reflects a sustained research programme connecting advances in pharmacology and drug-screening technology with the development and evaluation of therapeutics for major diseases and public-health challenges.