The Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) of Macao S.A.R. organized an expert panel to conduct an assessment for the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine on July 5 and 6, 2017. The four-person expert panel is headed by Academician Zhao Guo Pin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; other members are all well-known experts of the mainland in medical research areas. Through a set of site inspections, hearings of presentations at the site, and review of assessment reports, the expert panel gave high recognitions to the progresses made by the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine over the past six years, affirming that it has established scientific quality standards for innovative research of Chinese Medicine.
President Liu Liang (middle) gave thanks to the expert panel for its guidance and suggestions
In the morning of July 5th, the expert panel first went on site inspections to the two housing institutions of the Laboratory; in the afternoon, the panel heard reports by directors and researchers of the State Key Laboratory. President of MUST and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Chair Professor Liu Liang attended the opening ceremony of the conference and gave a speech on behalf of the University; he noted that with the tremendous support of the National Ministry of Science and Technology and the Macao S.A.R. Government, particularly, the Executive Committee of the FDCT, the State Key Laboratory, after years of hard work of the laboratory colleagues, has made fast development and speedy improvement in academic standards.
President Liu Liang (left) introduced the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine to Academician Zhao Guo Ping (1st right)
Chair Professor Jiang Zhi Hong, Vice President of MUST and Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine gave an introduction of the construction and development of the Laboratory from 2014 to 2016; major progresses achieved include: having hosted more than 100 research projects of various kinds, 60 of which are provincial-level or higher, having published hundreds of papers in SCI-indexed journals, about 2/3 of which were published in high-quality Q1 zone journals, namely the top 25% journals in the relevant fields, with 36 papers published in journals whose impact factor has been higher than 10; more than 10,000 times of paper citation; with respect to transfer of research achievements, the State Key Laboratory in total has been granted 93 patents, more than 90% of which are international patents; the Laboratory has signed agreement for transfer of research outcomes with 13 medical or investment firms, and has founded two companies to help promote industrialization of research outcomes; the State Key Laboratory is also where the convener and secretariat of Working Group for Chinese Herbal Medicine and Member of the Technical Committee of ISO/TC249 is, having hosted the formulation of two international standards of Chinese Medicine announced by the ISO; the State Key Laboratory won the second-class prize in National Science and Technology Progress Awards in 2012, and in the most recent three years, it has won 19 more awards of various kinds, including the only one first-class prize in the National Ministry of Education Natural Sciences Awards of Macao, the special award of Macao Science and Technology Awards and the first-class prize in Natural Science Awards of Macao Science and Technology Awards, the last two of which are the only two of such a kind in the Chinese Medicine field of Macao; all such awards give credit of first authorship to MUST. The State Key Laboratory makes active efforts in bringing in academic leaders and world famous scholars, and has brought in one Nobel laureate and one United States National Academy of Sciences fellow to serve as distinguished professors, established the “Dr. Neher’s Biophysics Laboratory of Chinese Medicine”, which was named by the Nobel laureate, and brought in a Changjiang scholar to work full-time. In addition, one member of the State Key Laboratory was newly appointed as Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor by the National Ministry of Education and another member was granted Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese Scholars and Scholars in Hong Kong and Macao, National Natural Science Foundation of China; the State Key Laboratory has trained 214 graduate students. With respect to cooperation and opening, the State Key Laboratory has established new partnership with many famous institutes from Canada, the United States, and Germany, and has established 11 open research projects; with respect to construction of facilities, the State Key Laboratory has newly housed facilities and equipment that’s worth more than 60million MOP, including the first third-generation DNA sequencing of Asia, Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, 3D micro-tomography CT scanner, super computer cluster, and other advanced apparatuses, which have made available multiple new high-technology platforms. Afterwards, researchers of the State Key Laboratory gave presentations of representative research work, which further demonstrated the advanced-ness, innovativeness, and significant scientific discoveries of the State Key Laboratory in quality and innovative drugs research of Chinese Medicine.
The expert panel visits the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine (Macau University of Science and Technology)
After site inspections and hearing of reports, Academician Zhao Guo Ping, Head of the assessment panel, gave assessment comments, pointing out that the State Key Laboratory has a clearly-defined positioning and a well-targeted goal. He further noted that “the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine promotes modernization and internationalization of Chinese Medicine, and facilitates development and transferral of innovative products; it has become a quality research base in Chinese Medicine with internationally advanced standard, providing an important platform for development of Chinese Medicine and laid groundworks for the perfection of Chinese Medicine quality’s standardization. ” The assessment panel also praised the significant achievements made by the State Key Laboratory in area of international innovation, commitment to tasks, research level, team management capability, academic exchange, training of talents, and construction of shared platforms. The assessment panel suggested enhancing the synergy of the two housing institutions of the State Key Laboratory, further distilling key scientific problems, utilizing strengths, enhancing cooperation and transfer, and reinforcing development of teams and matching of policies.
After the assessment panel announced the assessment opinions, President Liu Liang extended thanks to the assessment panel for their guidance and suggestions; he also gave thanks to the tremendous support of the national government and the Macao S.A.R. government. President Liu Liang noted that the State Key Laboratory will take the advice, further improve the planning of academic development of the State Key Laboratory, exert its strengths, cultivate new signature achievements, encourage and support experts and scholars to reach out of the laboratory and explore academic exchanges and cooperation with national and international renowned research institutions and firms, move forward the transfer, application, and industrialization of research outcomes. In the meantime, reminding the colleagues to carry on their original passion and make the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine an even shinier golden brand.
