There is still a long way to go in understanding life

"With research in recent years, scientists have gradually found that the tumor will promote the formation of capillaries, oxygen supply is not a lot. The method of sugar degradation was chosen because the metabolites during this period are involved in the synthesis of other biological macromolecules, making their own DNA and proteins. With these substances, cancer cells can divide from one cell into two cells." Liu Ying explained.

"As research continues to deepen, many of the life science phenomena we thought we understood are actually constantly being rewritten. Much remains unknown. Although we study aging, what are the underlying causes of aging? In what ways can we delay aging? At the human level, this is still an open question that needs to be solved. As the population ages, many diseases related to aging, such as neurodegenerative diseases, are also a big social problem." Liu Ying said.

Yang Maojun admitted that the biggest challenge facing the field of life sciences is that our understanding of the internal operating mechanism of living organisms is still far from enough, "For example, the five incurable diseases recognized in the world today: motor neurone disease (ALS), cancer, AIDS, leukemia, rheumatoid disease are listed as the world's five difficult diseases by the World Health Organization." With the development of technology, leukemia can now be cured by cellular immunotherapy or/and bone marrow transplantation, and AIDS can be effectively controlled. I believe that with further research by scientists, other diseases may also make significant progress in the near future."

In terms of disciplinary development, what are the new challenges facing the life sciences profession? Yang Maojun believes that the development of any discipline is nothing more than two dimensions, one is to go deeper and more detailed research, such as molecular level, atomic level and even quantum level research; The other is to extend outward, such as the integration and intersection of life sciences and various disciplines. "The challenge for the life sciences profession is that as we explore the unknown, we face more and more unknowns." Yang Maojun said.

Pioneering, explosive breakthrough in the life sciences

From "Darwinian evolution" breaking the mystery of life, to "cell theory" revealing the commonality of organisms, "Mendel's law" revealing the law of biological genetic change. In 1953, Watson and Crick proposed the famous DNA double helix structure model, which determined the "central law" of life movement and opened up a new era of molecular biology in the 20th century. Every major breakthrough in the field of life science is a milestone.

Liu Ying believes that every technological breakthrough will be correspondingly accompanied by a breakthrough in basic scientific research. "A few decades ago, the resolution of microscope imaging was very low, at most you could only observe the structure inside the cell, and if there was no fluorescent dye, you could not see what was happening inside the cell. However, with the continuous improvement and breakthrough of microscopic technology, now through high-resolution microscopy, you can really see the movement of various organelles inside the cell at all times, and the fusion between cells. As each cell divides, you can even see the whole process of each replication and division of chromosomes."

"With the technological breakthrough, it has really entered a multi-modal, from micro to boundary view to macro, and the overall description and deeper understanding of the phenomenon of life." I think life science in the 21st century will have explosive or leapfrog breakthroughs compared to previous ones."

"As researchers, we have no way to predict how to make a breakthrough, and can only rely on our own little by little to explore." Experiment little by little every day, even trial and error. In the process, we learn lessons, grasp new information, and continuously deepen our understanding of life science issues. It's a process from quantitative change to qualitative change, and when a certain amount of information is accumulated, there may be some breakthrough discoveries."

"Human beings cannot measure the progress of science, but the beauty of science is its uncertainty." Liu Ying said.

In Yang Maojun's view, due to the cross, influence and penetration of various disciplines of natural science and the continuous emergence of various new technologies, the future life science research will continue to be carried out at the micro and macro levels at the same time, and there is a trend of mutual integration. He said: "The future direction is nothing but to make humans understand themselves better, such as brain science; And give us a stronger ability to fight various diseases, such as gene therapy, artificial intelligence applied to drug development and so on."

"There is no doubt that life science will certainly create a new era and make the 21st century truly become the century of life science." Yang Maojun said. "The global outbreak of COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of millions of people, will undoubtedly be an opportunity to raise in-depth research in life sciences to a national strategic level. China's huge investment in life science research in the early stage, such as the 863 program, the national Key research and development program, and the recent establishment of four new national laboratories, have made a good layout of the country's future life science research, the rest needs to be unswervingly continued to push forward."