Macau University of Science and Technology Won the 2014 Science and Technology Award of Macao Special Administrative Region

The biennial award ceremony for Science and Technology Award of Macao Special Administrative Region was held on October 8th at the grand auditorium of Macau Cultural Center. Mr. Chui Sai On, Chief Executive of the Macao SAR. Mr. Li Meng, Vice Minister of Ministry of Science and Technology of People’s Republic of China, Mr. Yao Jian, Associate Director for Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, Mr. Feng Tie, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao SAR, Mr. Lau Si Io, Secretary of Secretariat for Transport and Public Works of Macao SAR, Dr. Yang Junwen from the Award Committee of Science and Technology of the Macao SAR, and Mr. Ma Chi Ngai, Chairman for the Administrative Committee of Science and Technology Development Fund of Macao, SAR, attended the ceremony. By virtue of the outstanding research on Chinese medicines, Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) won the solely Special Award, and one second-class Natural Science Award, which is the highest award in the category of Natural Science. In addition, 10 postgraduate students from MUST received Research and Development in Science and Technology Award for Postgraduate student. Mr. Chui Sai On, Associate Director Yao Jian, Dr. Yang Junwen and Chairman Ma Chi Ngai issued awards to the prize-winners.

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Mr. Chui Sai On awardedMUST’sgroup the Special Award

The title of the MUST’s Special Award is “Innovative methods in quality control and bioactivity evaluation for research and development of antiarthritic proprietary Chinese medicine”. Principal investigators of this project are Chair Professor Liu Liang, Professor Jiang Zhi-Hong, Associate Professor Zhou Hua and Assistant Professor Xie Ying. This project mainly focuses on the research methodology, technology, quality standard and product development of antiarthritic proprietary Chinese medicine. In this project, researchers have successfully developed and marketed the first sustained-release Chinese medicine in China, i.e. ZhengqingFengtongning Delayed Release Tablet, and also developed intestinal sustain released tablet and injection product, which has become the dominant Chinese medicine used in clinic for treating rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatism diseases. Researchers also established a new method for the quality control of proprietary Chinese medicine by combinative application of three methods, i.e., bioactive compound quantification, HPLC fingerprint analysis, and pharmacokinetic analysis of bioactive components. The safety use of toxic Chinese medicine AconitiLateralis Radix Preparata and Sinomenii Caulis has also been established in this project. We also for the first time employed SD rats instead of the expensive Lewis rats to establish adjuvant induced arthritis model in the world. The achievements of the projecthave reached the world-class level and have both theoretical and practical significance.

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Member of “Innovative methods in quality control and bioactivity evaluation for research and development of antiarthritic proprietary Chinese medicine’ and Mr. Chui Sai On

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Mr. Yao Jian awardedMUST’s group the Second-class Natural Science Award

The title of the MUST’ second-class Natural Science Award is“Innovative Research Methodologies and Novel Theoretical Basis of the “3-M” Feature of Chinese Herbal Medicines”. Principal investigators of this project are Chair Professor Liu Liang, Professor Jiang Zhi-Hong, Assistant Professor Wang Jing-Rong, Assistant Professor Leung Lai Han and Assistant Professor Wong Kam Wai. This project aimed at establishing the scientific basis for the holistic therapeutic effects of TCMbased on the TCM clinical practice, with “3M” feature (multiple constituents, multiple pharmacological activities and multiple action mechanisms) of TCM as a point of penetration. The project have proposed a novel research model for investigating the holistic therapeutic effects, the integrated modulation effects of TCM and a new personalized randomized clinical trial (PRCT) model. The project integrated 31 advanced techniques of chemistry, pharmacology, cell and molecular biology, systems biology, computational science (e.g., proteomic platform based on iTRAQ and 2-DE techniques, lipidomic platform, LC-MS-NMR technique, molecular imaging of live cells, etc.) and utilized 15 types of animal and cell models. By employing these advanced techniques and models, our project systematically investigated the feature and interconnection of the “3M” features. The results revealed the crucial roles of herbs origin, processing methods, co-decoction of medicinal herbs in prescription and metabolism as key steps for generating multiformity of chemical constituents of Chinese herbal medicine. Our results also uncovered the scientific connotation of the integrated modulating effects of the bioactive constituents of TCM, which were achieved by their action on multi-targets and networks. Results obtained from the project not only pushed the development of the discipline of “Clinical Therapeutics of TCM” forward, but also motivated the establishment of scientific evidence-based quality control standard of Chinese herbal medicine. Achievements of the project have been widely cited by domestic and international researchers.

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Member of “Innovative Research Methodologies and Novel Theoretical Basis of the “3-M” Feature of Chinese Herbal Medicines’ andMr. Yao Jian

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President Liu Liang delivered speech on behalf of award winners

Chair Professor Liang Liu delivered speech on behalf of all the award winners in the ceremony. He expressedhis heartfelt thanks to the Central Government, the Macao SAR Government, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) as well as the support from the Macao community on the science and technology development in Macao. Macao Science and Technology Award has played an important role in pushing forward Macao technological development. Chair Professor Liu said,“Science and technology is the embodiment of human wisdom, is an important factor in the sustainable development of the society. In the fastscience and technology development age in the 21st century, no matter which industry and field, long-term healthy development of the society has to be built with scientific thought, and be supported with technology advancement”. Due to historical reasons, compared to the surrounding areas, the technological development in Macao is lagging behind. However, with the support from the Macao SAR Government and the community, the technological developmentis now showing an unprecedented good situation ever. Finally, Chair Professor Liu expressed his confidence in the prospects of the science and technology development in Macao, and believed that if we clarify the main direction of technological development, maintain scientific spirit of innovative thinking and pragmaticattitude, focus on innovative research and technological achievements and translational applications, strengthen cooperation and promote technological and socio-economic development, the scientific and technological development in Macao will inevitably become a solid foundation and strong power for the all-round development of our society.

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Group photoof all awardees

Among the 10 awardees of postgraduate students, six were from Faculty of Information Technology, and 4 were from Faculty of Chinese Medicine of MUST.