On June 14, 2024, President Zhang Shuyang of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), led a delegation to Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) for discussions on the development of the Joint Center for High-end Research on Rare Diseases (hereinafter "Joint Center"). The meeting was attended by a distinguished group of participants, including: Dr. Nieng Yan, President of Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART) and Director of SZBL, Hu Xiaojun, Secretary of the Party Committee of SZBL, Tu Huan, Vice President of SMART and Deputy Director of SZBL, and Tan Ying, Vice President of SMART, as well as Principal Investigators (PIs) from SZBL and SMART and heads of relevant departments from SZBL.
The Joint Center is a collaborative initiative of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART), and Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL). The Joint Center aims to utilize the collective strengths of these institutions in both foundational research and clinical medicine to facilitate a thorough integration of the two domains. It focuses on diagnosing and treating rare diseases by developing safe and effective therapies and drugs, thereby promoting clinical research on rare diseases and enhancing China's capabilities in this field.
During the meeting, Luan Xiaodong, Director of the Drug Development and Evaluation Platform of the National Facility for Translational Medicine at PUMCH, outlined the Joint Center’s construction goals and talent recruitment strategies. Li Chao, Deputy Director of Office for Research at SZBL, provided an overview of the Joint Center’s positioning, objectives, operational management, and foundational construction. The three parties engaged in detailed discussions on the Joint Center's research framework, dual appointments for talent, student training, facility assurance, and resource sharing. President Zhang Shuyang emphasized that, through collaboration with SZBL and SMART, the focus will be on applying artificial intelligence technology for early screening of rare diseases, developing new drugs for rare disease treatment, and gene therapy research. Beginning with rare disease research, the collaboration will eventually extend to comprehensive research in areas such as oncology and neurological diseases. Additionally, SZBL's distinguished researchers, including Zhang Ke, Zhang Zhe, and Wang Chao, along with Senior Engineer Sun Zhenglong, shared updates on their latest progress and future collaboration plans in rare disease research. Distinguished researchers from SMART, including Pan Xiaojing, Gui Long, and Li Meijing, also presented their recent findings and collaborative ideas.
Dr. Nieng Yan, stated that the research into the prevention and treatment of complex and rare diseases is a key focus of the five-year integrated development plan jointly implemented by SZBL and SMART. Both institutions prioritize addressing clinical issues and aim to establish a distinctive presence in rare disease research through their collaboration with PUMCH. Yan emphasized the critical role of high-quality biobanks and databases in disease prevention, early screening, diagnosis, and personalized treatment, noting that this role is especially significant in rare disease research. Yan hopes that comprehensive cooperation with PUMCH will leverage the strengths of SZBL and SMART in bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, establishing a new paradigm in rare disease research.
The three parties also agreed to hold a joint academic exchange meeting in the near future and to establish a regular exchange mechanism to foster scientific research collaboration. This exchange clarified future cooperation models and synergy measures, and all parties look forward to their joint efforts yielding fruitful scientific research results soon.
Editor: Winston
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