Eight landmark achievements in the field of life sciences

Synthetic biology research

After China's first synthetic bovine insulin in the world in 1965 (won the first prize of the 1982 National Natural Science Award), in November 1981, the joint research team composed of Shanghai Biochemical Institute, Shanghai Cell Institute, Shanghai Organic Institute, Biophysics Institute and related units outside the institute lasted 13 years. Yeast alanine transfer ribonucleic acid complete molecule containing 76 nucleotides was synthesized for the first time in the world.

This achievement won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award in 1987, which is of great significance to reveal the origin of life and the role of nucleic acids in living organisms, and lays a theoretical foundation for further understanding of genetic and other life phenomena, and the development and application of a variety of nucleic acid drugs, marking China's entry into the ranks of the world's advanced in this field.

In August 2018, the Innovation Center of Excellence in Molecular Plant Science used synthetic biology "engineering" methods and efficient enabling technology to use single-cell eukaryotic Saccharomyces cerevisiae (naturally containing 16 linear chromosomes) as research materials to artificially create eukaryotic cells containing only a single chromosome for the first time in the world.

After synthetic bovine insulin and yeast alanine transfer ribonucleic acid, Chinese scientists have once again used synthetic science strategies to answer major fundamental questions in the field of life science, which will deepen human understanding of the nature of life.

Study on nonhuman primate model and brain connectivity map

The Center of Excellence for Brain Science and Intelligent Technology has made a series of important original achievements in the research of non-human primate models and brain connectivity maps.

At the end of 2017, the world took the lead in overcoming the worldwide problem of non-human primate somatic cell nuclear cloning, and the world's first individual cell cloned monkey "Zhong Zhong" was born on November 27, and the second cloned monkey "Hua Hua" was born on December 5.

This is another major breakthrough in the field of cloning biotechnology after the British sheep "Dolly" was cloned in 1997, which will strongly promote basic research in life sciences and translational medicine research, and bring bright prospects for exploring the mechanism of many complex diseases, establishing effective diagnosis and treatment and intervention methods, and creating new drugs.

In 2016, the Innovation Center of Excellence established the world's first non-human primate model carrying human autism genes, the cynomorphic monkey model, and constructed a behavioral analysis paradigm of non-human primate autism, providing an important window for observing the neuroscience mechanism of autism. It lays an important foundation for the in-depth study of the pathology of autism and the exploration of possible therapeutic intervention methods.

In 2016, the Center for Excellence in Innovation successfully drew a more accurate map of human brain functional divisions, namely the human brain network group map, breaking through the bottleneck of traditional brain mapping for more than 100 years, proposed the idea of "using brain connectivity information to map the brain", and established the living whole brain connectivity map on a macro scale for the first time. It provides an important foundation for the source innovation of brain science and brain disease research.

Genomic research

In July 1999, led by the Institute of Genetic Development, China participated in the International Human Genome Project, becoming the sixth participating country and the only developing country after the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan.

In April 2000, China completed the 1% genome sequence framework of the International Human Genome Project ahead of schedule. The 30 million bases on the short arm of chromosome 3 were determined. In February 2001, Nature published a research paper on the framework diagram of the Human Genome Project. In December 2002, Nature published a research paper on the fine map of the genome sequence of long-grain rice, and the complete map with a coverage rate of 99.99% was drawn. It has laid a foundation for China's biological resources genome research and participation in international biological industry competition.

In 2000, the Institute of Genetic Development cooperated in the Chinese Super hybrid rice Genome Project. In October 2001, it was the first to complete the drawing of the framework map of rice (indica rice) gene work, and released the database for free.

In December 2002, the world's first fine map of the whole genome of crops, indica rice genome sequence, was completed, and the world's first gene chip covering the whole genome of rice was successfully developed, laying a foundation for maintaining China's international leading position in the field of hybrid rice breeding. He won the Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003.