Life science research needs to be strengthened

Scientific information: "give away" and spend a lot of money to buy back

"The core technologies of life science are extremely diverse. Overall, it can be divided into four categories, namely, information, high-end equipment, consumables, and experimental animals." Wang Xiaoning, secretary general of the China Association for Science and Technology Life Science Association, said that in the field of life sciences, these "stuck neck" core technologies, although it will not lead to "one thing stuck, the rest are doomed" situation, but these four areas are highly dependent on foreign countries, "once the supply is broken, it will lead to the collapse of the entire industrial chain or dimensional-reduction development."

Among them, the scientific information resource is the focus of the international strategic game, and the excessive dependence on foreign countries in this field not only causes huge economic waste, but also brings uncontrollable risks. "China is now the largest provider of raw data and the largest buyer of data." "Wang Xiaoning said.

At present, China's practitioners in the field of life sciences, the growth rate of funding, the number of patents, the number of papers, and the growth rate of international journals rank first in the world, and such rapid development has brought about a "blowout" of innovation achievements. However, international journals are still the first place where these innovations go. Publishing results in international journals requires a publication fee, but when domestic researchers need to use the data, they have to provide a purchase fee to foreign institutions. In between, the amount of publishing fees and data procurement fees generated is staggering. "Our research found that the annual layout fee amounted to hundreds of millions to billions of yuan; In 2019, four universities in the Shanghai area had procurement funds of more than 30 million yuan, and the highest was 60.1 million yuan." Wang Xiaoning was bitterly grieved.

What is more worrying is that publishing papers in foreign journals, but also to surrender their key data to others, losing the original data advantage. "Most scientific papers are published in foreign journals, and supporting data must be submitted. This not only causes biological information to be 'exported to domestic sales', which consumes a huge amount of funds, but also causes the' outflow 'of scientific data to be serious, making our data advantages handed over to developed countries." Wang Xiaoning analysis said.

The reason for this is that our country lacks an influential database of scientific information. This makes China's life science research work highly dependent on overseas data, 55% of the world's annual 1.1PB international biological data downloads are from China, state-level gene databases, cell virus strains and genetic information involved also rely on foreign countries.

"This field is highly dependent on foreign countries, and if the supply is cut off, it will lead to the stagnation of scientific research. If the information is not provided, we will return to the research situation before the 1980s." "Wang Xiaoning said.

In addition to a high degree of dependence on foreign countries, China in the field of scientific information there are still unclear use rights policy, lack of sharing management norms, lack of domestic sharing management norms, subject to international standards and rules. The implementation of industry code of conduct and system is not in place, and there are problems such as the abuse of biological information and the risk of privacy information disclosure. At the same time, "the level of commercial development of biological information in China is low, which is at least 30 years behind the international frontier level." "Wang Xiaoning said.

Scientific equipment and consumables: Small medicine bottles also have the risk of "stuck neck"

At present, China's biomedicine covers chemical drugs, traditional Chinese medicine, biotechnology drugs, medical devices, with the most perfect industrial system, new drug research and development has been developed from imitation to original, and gradually to the world. China also has the most complete large-scale vaccine research and development and production system. Sinopharm's production capacity of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine alone has reached 3 billion doses, and the global supply has exceeded 100 million doses, covering more than 190 countries.

However, it needs to be noted that China is highly dependent on foreign countries in terms of high-end equipment and consumables. Recently, the blue book of "Technological Research Results in the Field of Life Sciences" issued by the Life Science Society of China Association for Science and Technology shows that China's current dependence on high-end life science instruments and equipment is 100%, the annual payment amount exceeds 100 billion, and domestic equipment lacks competitiveness. For example, cryo-electron microscopy, which can observe protein molecules, has greatly promoted the development of life sciences in recent years, but such equipment is completely dependent on imports in China.

"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.

On the other hand, the field of experimental animals involves zoology, medicine, pharmacy, statistics and other fields, "the number of colleges and universities offering experimental zoology is small, the personnel training system is not perfect, and the professional and technical personnel are lacking." Finally, the construction and operation of the experimental animal platform requires huge investment, the direct economic benefits brought by the investment are not significant enough, and the return on investment is low, which also affects the innovation and development of the animal experiment industry to a large extent.

The root of the problem: lack of people to do the basic work of the application

What are the reasons for these problems? Wang Xiaoning believes that in terms of high-end instruments and equipment, domestic equipment lacks incentive policies and international certification standards, and the credibility is low. Investment in major information facilities, experimental animal bases and key technological innovation bases is too low, or even vacant, and is not sustainable. In addition, capital investment is eager for quick success, rarely involved in original drugs, equipment, and serious follow the trend has also had a contributing impact.

"We don't have the people who are actually doing the basic application work." Wang Xiaoning said that in the research found that many rely on foreign technology, China's own talent, technology, concept are no problem, can develop independently, but there is no solid to do. "Equipment or instruments or consumables, these key technologies, let graduate students to do he will not do, tutors will not do, why?" Because doing this, the ranking of a university does not have a great weight on the application of academicians and results."

At the same time, Wang Xiaoning believes that the country's investment in life science infrastructure is still insufficient. However, the capital market has developed greatly in the past two years, but due to the lack of regulation and guidance, "always follow the trend, and rarely get involved in real innovative drugs." Wang Xiaoning said that the field of targeted drugs is a case of capital piling up to follow suit. "In the first half of 2020, we have 484 clinical trials, more than 50 waiting for the market, there is no one like this in the world, CAR-T has not been listed, there are 357 registrations, globally and concentrated in myeloma this niche disease, 26 in the United States, we have 24, whether these are necessary, is worth our in-depth consideration of the issue." "Wang Xiaoning said.

How to solve problems: Leading Big Science projects is the edge of solving problems

In Wang Xiaoning's view, the source research and industrial transformation of life sciences should become the top priority of the 14th Five-Year Plan period. "We must make life sciences and medical and health services the top priority of the country's development in the next stage, and we must conduct in-depth research and adjustments in terms of investment and orientation."

At the same time, he also stressed that it is necessary to strictly define the technology of "stuck neck" to avoid the generalization of the concept of "stuck neck", "what is" stuck neck "certainly not, must be the key technology, and this" stuck neck "can not be said just now, but also from the future development of the entire discipline to consider."

In order to avoid the generalization of the concept of "card neck" in the field of life sciences, according to Yu Jianrong, director of the Shanghai Life Science Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at present, a key technology "white list" is being developed, and will be widely solicited in various areas of urgent need to solve the consumables, key reagents and other aspects of dynamic continuation, to provide decision support for the government, enterprises and industry.

For how to solve the problem of "stuck neck" in the field of life science, Yu Jianrong believes that there should be several steps to specific research and explore solutions: First, focus on the pain points of "stuck neck" in the field of life science, and explore a new path for the development of innovative models; Second, design a three-part strategic path from completely getting rid of dependence, going abroad, and realizing leading the world; Thirdly, it discusses the mechanism and policy suggestions for the establishment of new modes of technology integration development and academic industry development.

"If you want to change the current predicament of the so-called 'stuck neck', it is not to do it for a certain technology." Solve a technology, people change a technology, immediately change the track. So if you want to lead the world, you have to develop the original innovation." Wang Xiaoning said that in this regard, strengthening international cooperation and exchanges, leading the big science program is a sharp edge to solve the problem. "We know that big science projects, the first of which was to produce source innovations, such as the Genome Project, revolutionized the development of the entire life sciences. Second, the property rights of the big science project are shared at the source, so there is no one who owns the other." "Now that China has the strength and ability, we should encourage more efforts to undertake big science programs led by Chinese scientists, strengthen source innovation and resource sharing, and fundamentally break the 'bottleneck'," he suggested.