How can national laboratories break down barriers and resistance in the field of life sciences?

1. The construction of national laboratories is accelerated

The national laboratory mainly focuses on the major strategic needs of economic and social development and national security, and the strategic blank areas of emerging cross-cutting frontier fields, and builds an experimental platform for interdisciplinary, comprehensive integration and mechanism innovation. China's national laboratory was founded in 1984, as an important strategic innovation force on behalf of the national level, since its establishment, it has mostly been in the pilot stage of exploration.

In recent years, the construction of national laboratories has accelerated. At the 2017 National Science and Technology Work Conference, the Ministry of Science and Technology proposed to build a national strategic science and technology force with the guidance of national laboratories, and in accordance with the principle of "mature one and start one", to start the construction of national laboratories in major innovation fields.

2018 Government Work Report: "Building a National Laboratory with High Standards";

2019 Government Work Report: "Pay close attention to the layout of national laboratories";

2020 Government Work Report: "Accelerate the construction of national laboratories";

The Government Work Report for 2021: "Successfully establishing the first batch of national laboratories" and "promoting the construction of national laboratories".

2 National laboratories around the "reserve team" to accelerate the layout

Provinces and municipalities actively respond to the national innovation-driven development strategy, take the initiative to standard the construction standards and requirements of national laboratories, rely on relevant colleges and universities and enterprises, and begin to build laboratories in order to strive for the layout of national laboratories. In the field of life sciences, a number of high-level laboratories such as Zhangjiang Laboratory, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Bioisland Laboratory, Tianfu Laboratory, Liangzhu Laboratory and Xihu Laboratory have been built.

In September 2017, Zhangjiang Laboratory was officially established.

Construction mechanism: Implement the director responsibility system under the leadership of the management committee, with Shanghai Institute of Advanced Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as the main body of the construction legal person. A number of major national science and technology infrastructure facilities, such as Shanghai Light Source and National Protein Science Research (Shanghai) Facility, have been transferred to the unified management of the Shanghai Academy of Advanced Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Target direction: Initially adopted the "1+2+1" layout: "1" refers to the large scientific facilities of photon science and related basic research; "2" refers to the two major research directions of life science and information technology; "1" refers to the intersection of life science and information technology - brain-like intelligence.

Operation mechanism: Establish a financial research investment mechanism that combines high quota, stable funding and competitive funding; Implement the recruitment system combining full employment and double employment, independently select and recruit research leaders, and establish a mechanism to attract and motivate outstanding talents; Through the opening of big science installations and the flow of talents, extensive cooperation with scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises is carried out to form a large collaborative innovation network; It focuses on medium - and long-term evaluation, focusing on third-party and international peer evaluation.

In April 2019, the opening ceremony of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (Guangdong Laboratory of Life Information and Biomedicine) was held. In June 2020, as the first major scientific research institution officially settled in Guangming, it will build the core structure of a comprehensive national science center.

Construction mechanism: Contracted by Shenzhen City, jointly organized by Shenzhen Science and Innovation Commission and Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University.

Target direction: Facing the world's scientific and technological frontier and people's life and health, closely focusing on the national strategic layout, guided by collaborative efforts to overcome major scientific problems in life and health, focused on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of major diseases such as cancer, metabolism and cardiovascular, neurodegeneration, and infectious diseases, and characterized by IT+BT integration and multidisciplinary intersection, To carry out research in the fields of disease mechanism, life information, innovative drugs, and medical imaging.

Operation mechanism: The laboratory is fully independent of the management, financial and physical resources, giving the maximum degree of independent management. Adhere to the establishment of long-term stable support institutions, without establishment management, scientific research budget is sufficient, so that researchers can concentrate on scientific research. The establishment of a recruitment committee, the establishment of a multi-dimensional evaluation system, focusing on the evaluation of the scientific research impact of researchers. Establish a scientist-centered scientific research management and service system.

Bioisland Laboratory (Guangzhou Regenerative Medicine and Health Guangdong Laboratory) was established in December 2017, is one of the first provincial laboratories in Guangdong Province to cultivate and create a national laboratory "reserve team" as the goal to start construction.

Target direction: Aiming at the cutting-edge research of stem cell and regenerative medicine theory and technology, the layout of regenerative medicine frontier basic research, clinical innovation research, bioinformation, biosafety research and high-end biomedical device consumables research and development of five scientific research directions.

Operation mechanism: To build major science and technology infrastructure and platform, and build regenerative medicine and health frontier research base, clinical application base, achievement transformation and industrialization base and high-level talent base.

The eighth Plenary session of the 11th Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China deployed innovation in the core position of the overall modernization construction, and clarified the goal of scientific and technological innovation development in Sichuan from 2025 to 2035 - in 2025, it will be built into a national innovation-driven development province, and by 2035, it will be basically built into a strong province of science and technology. In order to achieve this goal, Sichuan will strive to become a national laboratory through the construction of Tianfu Laboratory. In February 2021, the "Work Plan for the Establishment of Tianfu Laboratory" was officially issued and implemented.

Layout positioning: higher than the key laboratory of Sichuan Province, heavy quality not weight, in accordance with the "less but fine" layout.

Focus: Focus on life science, space science and technology, advanced nuclear energy, electronic information and other advantages.

In July 2020, Liangzhu Laboratory (Zhejiang Provincial Laboratory of Systematic Medicine and Precision Diagnosis and Treatment) was established, marking the official opening of Zhejiang University Medical Center located in the western Corridor of Science and Technology.

Construction mechanism: Led by Zhejiang University.

Target direction: Guided by disease, focusing on common clinical needs, supported by high-energy technologies such as multi-omics, integrating biotechnology and information technology, and taking clarifying the occurrence and development law of disease phenotype differences as the fundamental scientific task, it focuses on promoting systematic and multi-omics and precise diagnosis and treatment of major psychiatric diseases, difficult undiagnosed diseases, blood and immune diseases and other diseases.

Operation mechanism: Build a high-standard public service platform, and form a full-chain research and development system from cutting-edge science, application basis to clinical trials. Explore a mixed personnel management system.

In July 2020, the West Lake Laboratory (Life Sciences and Biomedicine Zhejiang Laboratory) was officially established.

Construction mechanism: Led by Westlake University, School of Pharmacy, Zhejiang University and Hangzhou Hospital Group jointly participated.

Target direction: Focus on the diagnosis and treatment of metabolic and aging diseases, tumor mechanisms and infectious diseases, and promote translational applied research and emergency medical research through interdisciplinary research methods of multi-field exchanges and cooperation.

Operation mechanism: Three centers are set up: Basic research Center, translational application center and emergency medicine Center. Among them, the basic research Center consists of two clusters of metabolic and aging diseases and tumor mechanism research; The Center for Translational Application consists of two clusters: interdisciplinary research methods and translational application research. The Emergency Medical Center consists of two clusters: microbiology research and vaccine antibody research and development.