Characterizing the leadership in research is important to revealing the interaction pattern and organizational structure through research collaboration. This research defines the leadership role based on the corresponding author's affiliation, and presents, the first quantitative research on the factors and evolution of five proximity dimensions (geographical, cognitive, institutional, social and economic) of research leadership. The data to capture research leadership consists of a set of multi-institution articles in the life sciences and biomedical during 2013-2017 from Web of Science Core Citation Database. Our sample consists of 484,903 articles from 244 Chinese institutions, which have been the primary affiliation of the corresponding author for at least one paper (with multiple institutions) in each year. A Tobit regression-based gravity model indicates that research leadership mass of both the leading and participating institutions and the geographical, cognitive, institutional, social and economic proximity are important factors of the flow of research leadership among Chinese institutions. In general, the effect of these proximity for research leadership flow has been declining recently. The outcome of this research sheds light on the leadership evolution and flow among Chinese institutions, and thus can provide evidence and support for grant allocation policy to facilitate scientific research and collaborations.