Life science research needs to be strengthened

"Frozen electron microscopy a more than 30 million, we can not produce ourselves, in the hands of others, said there may be no." This device is not going to affect life safety in the short term, but it is critical for the development of structural biology." "Wang Xiaoning said.

In addition to high-end equipment, the dependence of some key consumables on foreign countries is as high as 98%, and the annual consumption is as high as hundreds of billions of yuan. "For example, we may go to the hospital to do some biochemical tests, in which the core enzyme, even if the domestic kit, the core enzyme may still be imported, if this is cut off, to the hospital even basic testing can not be done." "Wang Xiaoning said.

There are many examples like this - Cillin bottles are commonly used as medicine bottles, including antibiotics such as penicillin and vaccines such as COVID-19 vaccines. However, China's current Xilin bottle of raw material pipe 100% dependent on imports. This new coronavirus outbreak related test kits are facing the situation of raw material prices and even supply cuts. "There are also filter packs for the preparation of drugs that are basically completely imported, and once the supply of this stuff is cut off, the production line process will be lost." Wang Xiaoning said, "These are the characteristics of the 'neck'."

According to the statistics of the Blue Book, the market size of China's biological scientific research reagents grew at a compound annual growth rate of 17.1%, to 13.6 billion yuan in 2019, the growth rate is higher than the global market, and this huge market is occupied by foreign enterprises.

Laboratory animals: The "foundation of foundations" is not well established

After the successful development of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is currently being promoted in various countries, it is only possible to further enter the clinic if it is proved safe and effective in animals. Animal testing, but also any new drugs, new vaccines to enter the clinical must pass the checkpoint, because of this, experimental animals are also known as life science research "live reagents", food and drug testing "live balance".

However, few people know that even the commonly used laboratory animal, the mouse, has been genetically cultivated for several generations, and has been divided into many categories suitable for different experiments. "Every experimental animal is cultivated by scientists, and it is necessary to understand the relationship between its biological characteristics and diseases, as well as the objectives of research, which is the basis of basic research." Qin Chuan said. Some mice are grown specifically for anti-tumor drugs, while others are grown specifically for vaccines. If the wrong animal is used, it may produce invalid experiments and may produce wrong experimental results. For this reason, it is crucial to ensure the genetics, environment, technical operation and diet of experimental animals.

But this "foundation of foundations" was not firmly established. At present, China's own experimental animal training is insufficient, and some experimental animal production and supply enterprises are also aiming at this market and are making a large advance. For example, Charles River's share in the national laboratory animal market in 2019 has exceeded 50%.

However, it is not desirable to replace domestic laboratory animals with imported laboratory animals. "On the one hand, excessive dependence on imports will lead to the risk of comprehensive monopoly of international germplasm resources. On the other hand, the annual consumption of large and mouse in China is about 12 million to 15 million, and the price of imported experimental animals is expensive, 10 times, 100 times, or even thousands of times that of local animals, which is a lot of money." "And many of the key animals are not what you want."

"In the early days we were able to import some laboratory animals, which led some scientists to think it was OK to buy them." However, the experience from SARS to the novel coronavirus has shown that "if we lack the research tool of our own laboratory animals, we will become the most damaged group." Qin Chuan said.

In response to this situation, our country has begun to act. By the end of 2020, the Health Commission and the Ministry of Education have set up five key laboratories related to laboratory animals. Ten key laboratories have been set up in Beijing, Tianjin and other provinces. For example, the Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Model Research of Emerging and re-emerging Infectious Diseases and the Model and Characteristic Animal Experimental Platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are all newly established research units related to experimental animals.

However, it must be admitted that in the field of experimental animals, our country is still in its infancy and faces many problems in its development.

The first is the safety of its own experimental animal germplasm resources, "its own experimental animal species resources are the precious wealth of the country, especially the animal germplasm resources unique to China, if not preserved, it will be easy to be 'stolen'." "Wang Xiaoning said.