The Nature Index is a ranking system to evaluate scientific research institutions worldwide, based on the calculation and statistical analysis of the number of research papers published in 68 Scientific journals such as Nature series, Science, Cell and so on in the previous year, which forms the Nature Index Tables Sort announcement. It covers more than 20,000 scientific research institutions around the world, and tracks the information of the authors of approximately 60,000 high-quality scientific papers. The 68 source journals are divided into four categories: chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, bioscience and physics. These journals only account for 0.6% of the total number of journals in the world, but their citations account for 30% of natural science journals. The papers published in these journals, to a certain extent, represent the high-level research results of the world. Only 2 organizations in our country are selected as the top 100 research institutions in the Nature Index 2017, one is our laboratory while the other is the Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology of Peking University.

Since the establishment of the laboratory, under the leadership of Professor Yulin Li, four distinctive research directions including stem cell regenerative medicine, tumor pathobiology, environment-related diseases, and new drug creation have gradually formed. The laboratory has successively presided over major research tasks such as national 863, 973, and 13th Five-Year National Major R&D Projects and Natural Science Foundation key projects, published about 35 academic papers annually, 12 patents for invention(including 1 American patent), won the first prize of China Medical Science and Technology Award, the first prize of Jilin Province Science and Technology Progress Award and the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award, simultaneously been contributing to the country's technological innovation and social progress.