On April 24, 2022, the Institute of Chemical Biology of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory held the first SZBL & PKUSZ joint meeting and Chemistry-Biology Interdisciplinary Academic Conference. Wu Yun-Dong, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Director of SZBL, Feng Xiaoming, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yang Zhen, Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology, Shen Weijun, Director of the Centre of Translational Research, Zhang Xinhao, Assistant to the SZBL Director, representatives of investigators from the School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School and representatives of research groups of the Institute of Chemical Biology attended the meeting. The meeting was held in two sessions in the morning and afternoon, chaired by Shen Weijun, Chen Peng, Shen Xuetong, Tang Xiaoyu and Zhang Bo respectively.
Wu Yun-Dong made an opening speech and pointed out that the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) has to take disease research as its guide, with viruses, tumours and neuroscience as its three key research directions; it has to take the combination of "IT+BT" as its guide, and be driven by both collaborative research and free exploration to conduct more comprehensive and accurate research on life and health issues. Yang Zhen said that the Institute of Chemical Biology shoulders the mission of creating an innovative drug ecology in the Greater Bay Area and is a powerful tool to enhance the research power of new drug development, and we should strive to build the Institute of Chemical Biology into an innovative drug base with international influence and an international first-class research institution.
Then, the attending scholars made detailed presentations on their research results and follow-up research plans. Feng Xiaoming introduced the research on asymmetric catalytic reactions carried out by their group. Shen Weijun introduced the new drug development paradigm of the Centre of Translational Research and the new drug development capability of the whole chain from target validation to pre-clinical new drug development. Wei Jingqiang presented the great promise of highly activity STING agonists in anti-cancer immunotherapy. Cao Yu introduced the precise design of antibodies and immunological cytotherapy drugs. Zhang Lei introduced two new strategies for immunotherapy of colorectal cancer. Zhou Demin presented biotechnological drug research based on the influenza virus structure and functional bionic basis. Zhong Guocai presented the feasibility of exploring inducible AAV-ACE2-Ig for Covid-19 prevention and control, aiming to provide a broad-spectrum prevention option for Coronavirus infection in immunocompromised/immunodeficient populations.
In the afternoon, representatives from the Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University and SZBL presented their research areas as well as their latest achievements. The research on the development of novel antitumor and antiviral PPI inhibitors conducted by Huang Hao's group is expected to develop into an important force in the development of PPI inhibitors in China. Tang Xiaoyu presented a new method for the high efficient production of the anticancer and antiviral drug Plitidepsin. Xiang Zheng introduced the unnatural reactions between natural product biosynthesis and enzyme catalysis. Li Shupeng presented research on the inflammatory mechanisms and targets research for the treatment of resistant depression. Yin Yandong presented super-resolution microscope analysis of DNA replication. Ge Yun introduced two novel chemical biology tools: Nanobody-splitOGA and EXCELL. Han Wei gave a presentation on the research and important progress made on scientific issues by using the PACE-ASM computing model.
The participants had a passionate discussion on the research details and latest results. Wu Yun-Dong gave a closing speech and hoped that this seminar would become a fountainhead of academic ideas, providing a good research platform and a relaxed environment for young scholars, who would respect each other, compete and cooperate with each other, thus facilitating the development of innovative research work. Chen Peng shared with the participants on the new trend of "Clinical Chemical Biology", which proposes to use chemical biology as the core in advancing life science and medical research, to directly address problems originating from clinical patients, and to jointly solve scientific problems in life processes, disease diagnosis, new drug discovery, drug target discovery and validation, and clinical treatment. He concluded by commenting that the presentations in this conference were very cutting edge and inspiring! He hoped that everyone would do groundbreaking and high level research work with the strong support of SZBL.
This conference, through a combination of online and offline approaches, has provided a good academic exchange platform for young scholars from different disciplines, and has promoted academic exchanges as well as united many research forces, contributing to the integration and development of universities and research institutions. The attending scholars expressed that they would continue to make efforts to obtain academic results with international influence, and more importantly, create the value of translational outcomes, further enhance the research and development potential of SZBL in the field of biopharmaceuticals. The presentation conference was a great success!
