Life science makes life better



On October 27, the opening ceremony of the 2018 World Life Sciences Conference was held at the National Convention Center in Beijing. With the theme of "Science for a Better Life", the conference will carry out high-level academic exchanges and display the latest achievements in the fields of medicine and health, agriculture and food safety, environmental science, biotechnology and economy, and health policy. More than 400 leading scientists in the field of life sciences at home and abroad, including a number of Nobel Prize winners and 66 Chinese and foreign academicians, conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions.

This conference is a grand meeting of the world's life sciences and China's life sciences, and it is also the highest level and most influential conference held in this field in China, which is of great significance to promote the leapfrog development of China's life sciences and enhance the international influence of China's life sciences.

Wu Yuanbin, Director of Social Development Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology:

Life science will certainly provide a breakthrough for solving the major problems faced by mankind

In recent years, with the accelerated breakthrough of core technologies such as gene sequencing, omics analysis, and gene editing biosynthesis, and the deep integration of life science with agriculture, medicine, industry and other application fields, the leading, breakthrough, and subversive characteristics of biotechnology have become increasingly prominent.

In terms of scientific basis, the number of published papers in biology and medicine in the world has ranked first in all fields in the past decade, and the number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries accounted for 25% of the top 100 enterprises in global R&D investment in 2016, ranking first.

From the perspective of technological maturity, as sequencing analysis, gene editing, biosynthesis and other technologies become more and more mature, the path of technology realization is becoming more and more clear, and the future medicine, future agriculture, future license, future energy and other transformational visions driven by life science and biotechnology are accelerating into reality.

From the perspective of industrial development, the biotechnology industry closely follows the information industry and leads the global economic development with a higher growth rate. In a report on the Bioeconomy 2030, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that by 2030 biotech output will account for 50 percent of global agricultural output, 80 percent of the value of pharmaceuticals and production materials, and 35 percent of industrial output.

On the whole, life science and biotechnology play an increasingly prominent role in solving major problems such as diseases, resource bottlenecks and environmental problems faced by mankind, and promoting a new round of world scientific and technological revolution and industrial development. The development of life science and biotechnology will certainly provide an important breakthrough for solving the major problems of health, agriculture, industry, resources and environment that mankind is facing in the future.

Cao Wenkai, President of the US National Academy of Medical Sciences and co-Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 2018 World Life Sciences Congress:

Life sciences can help people live a better life

Many technological breakthroughs in the life sciences can help everyone get a better life.

Life science can not be ignored, involving all aspects of life, such as agriculture, medicine. Life science research also provides many important elements for the development of the biological sciences, including tools for transcription that improve the lives of agricultural crops and animals, allow us to better understand the environment, and understand other living things. When it comes to gene drives and gene editing, we have the potential to make better contributions to health, food, the supply environment and more.

Advancing the life sciences requires funding for innovation, as well as the efforts of scientists. Above all, it requires a shared commitment from academia, government, and business. Countries also have thriving businesses that work together to solve the hardest problems and promote economic development.

China and the United States are both leading countries in the biosciences, especially biotechnology and research, and we need to work together from the government, academia and the business community in this area. Science is now becoming more and more global, and transnational efforts and collaborations will play a very important role in advancing the life sciences. We can achieve so much more if we work together, by exchanging ideas, collaborating, and sharing data together.

Chen Zhu, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences:

Life science has become the mainstream of science in the 21st century

Since the beginning of the new century, the cross-integration of science and technology has made great progress in life science, biotechnology has increasingly become the core of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, and the third generation of gene sequencing technology has made sequencing into a high-throughput, high-precision, low-cost and portable era. In addition, pure scientific analysis technology, stem cell analysis technology, gene editing technology, high-throughput protein structure and function analysis technology, protein engineering technology, cell factory technology, etc., accelerate the drawing of life blueprint and systematic cognition of complex activity laws. Life science and biotechnology continue to innovate, cross and integrate, and are widely used in scientific frontier, medical clinical, modern agriculture, industrial production, ecological environmental protection and many other fields, promoting the innovation and development of precision medicine, precision agriculture, advanced manufacturing, new energy materials, and greatly improving human well-being.

China attaches great importance to the development of life sciences and biotechnology, and is promoting the rapid progress of research and related industries in the field of life sciences through scientific and technological innovation. In recent years, a number of important innovative achievements and breakthroughs have been made in genome and protein science, brain science, primate cloning, immunology, induced pluripotent stem cells, super hybridization, tissue and organ engineering, vaccines for emerging infectious diseases, and anti-tumor drugs, which have played a positive role in international scientific progress and the improvement of people's lives and health. It should be emphasized that basic research in life sciences is still the source of leading the application and transformation of biotechnology in all aspects, and governments need to attach great importance to it and increase support.

In the 21st century, life science has become the mainstream of science, and its intersection with big data, artificial intelligence, engineering science and other disciplines will fundamentally solve many major problems faced by human society.

I would like to make two proposals. First, we need to strengthen international exchanges and cooperation to raise the level of life science research. Life science is an important science related to human survival, health and sustainable development. To promote global exchanges and cooperation in the field of life science, non-academic factors should not interfere with it. Scientists from all countries should enhance the awareness of a community of shared future for mankind, target the frontier of life sciences and the major needs of biotechnology, build an all-dimensional, multi-level and institutionalized exchange platform, share results, work together, continuously improve the level of life science research, and pay attention to the training of life science talents from developing countries. We will actively respond to the common challenges facing the survival and development of mankind with more scientific breakthroughs and innovations.

Second, promote scientific and technological innovation and promote the transformation of life science achievements. The ultimate goal of scientific research is to benefit mankind. The scientific community and industry should vigorously promote research and development of life sciences and related technologies, strengthen cutting-edge and original joint research, and continue to promote the depth and brightness of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, strive to solve the challenges common to mankind such as a healthy environment, and provide more public goods for the betterment of mankind. At the same time, it will also contribute more new drivers to global economic growth.

David Baltimore, 1975 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine:

The development of life science is a very wonderful process of exploration

The World Life Sciences Congress is a good time for scientists to review and look ahead to the life sciences.

In the 1950s and 1960s, we began to study how molecular techniques could change the understanding of biological systems. We were very surprised and confused, because we knew about gene technology, we knew that genes were important for the growth of organisms, but we didn't know what the mechanism was, and we had no way to connect genes to the chemistry of life.

Then Craik discovered the structure, which is a very important development, telling us that chemistry is related to genetic material, but to our surprise it is much closer to information technology, not the so-called chemical chain mechanism that we are familiar with.

Later life science became AGCT, not a normal chemical language. This is really a turning point in human history, and it tells us that there are mechanisms in biological systems that we didn't know existed before, in fact a set of codes. And then there was a period of time when we understood how to make changes and adjustments to DNA, and by the year 2000, we had seen the sequencing of the human genome, and we had the tools to describe and reprogram DNA.

Until the 1970s, we didn't know whether cancer was a genetic problem or an environmental problem, and now we know that genes play a major role, so the development of the life sciences has given us a very wonderful process of exploration that continues today.

If we look forward, we're going to see a lot of new technologies, including things like gene sequencing, but also protein structure, stem cell sequencing, and we're going to see another trend here, where we're starting to move away from model systems and start to look at the whole structure of biotechnology.

Synthetic technology is also at the heart of future biotechnology, and will continue to be, because its potential is unlimited. For scientists, it also presents a challenge. We can use it to treat diseases that are difficult to cure, especially neurological diseases. It also addresses the biggest challenge of the future, where we need to learn more about the brain and translate that understanding into our treatment of some neurological diseases.