Professor He obtained Ph.D. in Microbiology/Biochemistry from Department of Biology at University of Paisley in 1991, and completed postdoctoral research in Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at University of Edinburgh in 1992 and then worked as a senior researcher fellow in MRC (Medical Research Council) Human Genetic Unit at University of Edinburgh for over three years. Since 1996, he has been the principal investigator in Shanghai Research Center of Life Sciences and Shanghai Institute of Physiology in China Academy of Sciences. He is director of Human Neuropsychiatric Genetics Group (NHGG) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University & China Academy of Sciences. Since 2000, he has been professor and Director of Bio-X Center of Life Sciences at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and professor and president of Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, China, respectively. He Lin is an active geneticist worldwide and has made significant contributions in studies of monogenetic and polygenetic disorders. His team first uncovered the century puzzle in genetic history, or the IHH (Indian Hedgehog) gene causes brachydactyly type A-1, the first recorded example of human disorder with Mendelian autosomal-dominant inheritance, and also discovered a teeth-related novel genetic disorder, or “He-Zhao deficiency”, which was first disease named with Chinese name. in addition, his team has mapped and cloned several other important monogenic genes, and made a great progress in hunting candidate genes of schizophrenia and other mental disorders in the past. He is employed as associate-editor-in-chief of Biological Experiment and Medicine, and member of editorial board of dozens of national and international science magazines, including Psychiatric Genetics, Human Genetics, Cell Research, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, Epigenetics, Acta Bioch Bioph Sin, etc. He has received several international awards and has published over 200 peer reviewed papers.

His current research interests relate to studies of birth defects, psychiatric disorders-based genomics, nutrigenomics and pharmacogenomics.