Across the three universities, the biology faculty-and-staff community exceeds five hundred members and combines senior academic leaders with a strong generation of young investigators. Fudan has more than 200 staff and over 150 principal investigators, including four academicians. SJTU has more than 200 faculty and staff, including CAS/CAE academicians, distinguished professors, national talent-program awardees, and leaders of major national research initiatives. Tongji has 123 staff members, including 98 professional teachers, with extensive national- and provincial-level talent recognition.

Collectively, the three universities offer supervision across experimental biology, computational biology, biotechnology, engineering, and translational medicine, supported by laboratory rotation, individualized mentoring, and interdisciplinary research teams.

The three institutions operate major research platforms and shared facilities. Fudan hosts national and provincial-level platforms and core facilities for electron microscopy, flow cytometry, metabolomics, proteomics, imaging, genomics, structural biology, pathogen biology, organoids, and model organisms. SJTU's platforms include the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, the National Engineering Resource Center for Microbial Strains, the 'Microbiology+' Basic Research Innovation Center, and the National High-Level Talent Training Center for Biology. Tongji hosts the Frontiers Science Center for Stem Cell Research, the National Stem Cell Translational Resource Library, the Ministry of Education Stem Cell Resource Library, and advanced shared instrumentation.

Research strengths are highly complementary. Fudan contributes genetics, development, molecular mechanisms, neurobiology, organoids, targeted protein degradation, mRNA technologies, microbial cell factories, and AI-assisted discovery. SJTU is strong in microbial metabolism, genetics and development, bioinformatics and biostatistics, microbiome research, synthetic biology, bioengineering, and quantitative life science. Tongji focuses on stem cells, regeneration, major-disease mechanisms, precision medicine, and clinical translation, while FIRFS extends these strengths toward molecular medicine, biomanufacturing, and AI for Science.

Recent outputs across the three universities include major national projects, high-impact publications in leading journal families, and national or provincial science awards.

The three universities provide complete and complementary systems for doctoral training. Fudan emphasizes early research immersion, laboratory rotation, strong foundations, critical thinking, academic communication, and integration of experimental and computational methods. SJTU offers research-oriented doctoral programs in Biology and Bioengineering, with English-taught coursework, quality assurance, and extensive scholarly engagement; its Mingzhi Honors Program supports future leaders in biology. Tongji offers an integrated undergraduate-to-postdoctoral pathway, with nationally recognized Biotechnology and Bioinformatics programs and participation in the Top-Notch Student Training Program 2.0 and Strong Foundation Program.

Students benefit from major research platforms, broad supervisor choice, interdisciplinary projects, and international exchange opportunities. Training can span basic mechanisms, quantitative analysis, intelligent experimentation, technology development, and clinical translation. Together, Fudan, SJTU, and Tongji provide the faculty, infrastructure, international networks, and educational foundations required for the JUSTCOOL program and for cultivating globally competitive life-science talent.