Cong Ma earned his PhD in Chemistry from the Ecole Polytechnique in France. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT in the USA, his research interests transitioned to biology. After completing a research fellowship at the University of Newcastle in Australia, Ma established his research group at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, focusing on drug discovery, organic chemistry, and AI-assisted drug design. He has contributed to 60 scientific publications, holds over 10 patents, and has received multiple international awards, including the Global Innovation Awards by TechConnect in 2019 and the Science Breakthrough of the Year 2023 by the Falling Walls Foundation. He is a standing committee member of the Guangdong Pharmaceutical Association and an assessment panel member of the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park. Additionally, he co-founded Ynno Med Ltd, a biotech company dedicated to developing novel antibiotic drugs.