2021 is an extraordinary year, with the historical convergence of the two Centenary Goals, as we have moved forward and entered a new journey of fully building a modern socialist country. In these fast-moving times, all the members of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory work with vigorous and determined endeavor and do not slack off. With the spirit of keeping up with the times, the courage to innovate and the unflinching perseverance, all members of the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory have shouldered the responsibilities of the times and worked hard to achieve a high level science and technology on our own, leaving behind many unforgettable stories and impressions of Shenzhen Bay Lab. On January 17th, the General Office initiated and hosted the selection of "Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Top 10 News of 2021". After the initial screening of judges, online voting and expert evaluation, 10 news items, including "Tribute to Century of Glory" and "Second Anniversary of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory", were selected as the "Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Top 10 News of 2021".
The "Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Top 10 News of 2021" are as follows (in chronological order):
01
Tribute to Century of Glory
The Laboratory organized series of activities to celebrate the centenary of founding of the Party
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, deeply implement the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee, deepen and expand the learning of the Party’s history, promote the spirit of patriotism, stimulate love for the Party and the country, and combine the features of the lab of "the four orientations", scientific and technological innovation, youth groups and other characteristics, the Party Committee of the Laboratory organized a series of activities such as "Party Secretary's Lunch Day", music and themed Party lessons, science popularization in the campus. The Party Committee organized a series of activities such as "Sing a Folk Song to the Party", staff painting and calligraphy exhibition, volunteer service activities, and party classes on the theme of "Science and Technology for the Nation", to further unify thought, will and actions, and to inspire all Party branches and Party members to give full play to their role as a fighting base and pioneer, and write a new chapter in the development of the Laboratory.
02
Long journey, with endeavors
Shenzhen Bay Laboratory celebrated its second anniversary
On January 6th, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory celebrated its second birthday. In the past two years, the construction and development of the Laboratory are encouraging, it has built up an overall structure, basically achieved multi-dimensional cross-coverage of disciplines and technologies, and achieved progress in the bringing in of talents, platform construction, scientific research and institutional construction, supporting the construction of the pilot demonstration zone with socialism in Shenzhen and supporting the development of the national bio-medical industry and clinical medicine.
03
Gathering of great minds to create inclusive and innovative academic atmosphere
Academician Lecture and "Mangrove" Forum Series begins
The Shenzhen Bay Laboratory encourages and actively creates a free, open, inclusive and innovative academic atmosphere and explores the construction of a win-win cooperation and exchange mechanism. In 2021, the Laboratory's academician lectures, "Mangrove Forum" series of lectures, and "Treasury Lecture Hall" have been held one after another, regularly inviting famous scholars and public figures of business circle from home and abroad to deliver report on research, and cutting-edge information in the field of scientific research and industry, and the lectures are open to researchers and the community, and provide a high starting point for interdisciplinary academic exchange, serving as an important guarantee for the training of innovative talents.
04
Continuing to gain attention from media
Lab featured on CCTV again in 2021
On February 27, China Media Group (CMG) launched a special programme "Early Spring in the South" to cover the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory live. The CCTV news reporter went into the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory to learn about the cutting-edge basic research being carried out here and to visit the "Shenzhen Bay Story" behind the scientific research. On April 13, CCTV's series of reports on "A Century of Struggle and a New Journey" again interviewed Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, telling the story of how the laboratory, as an innovative representative of basic scientific research in Shenzhen, has always adhered to the strategic direction of "Four Orientations" and strived to come out of a new era of improvement and innovation on our own. On May 9, CCTV news broadcast focused on Shenzhen's construction of a whole process innovation ecological chain, and the beginning of the report focused on eight scientific research institutions represented by Shenzhen Bay Laboratory settled in Guangming Science City, and a number of large scientific devices and research platforms were comprehensively laid out, becoming an important support for scientific innovation and industrial development in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao's Greater Bay Area and the whole country.
05
Building strong biosecurity barrier
Strengthening the risk governance system
On 15 April, the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China has come into force. On this landmark day, the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Biosecurity Management Committee has been formally established. Under the guidance of the Laboratory Safety Management Committee, the Committee will follow the laws, regulations and policies on biosecurity management, conscientiously carry out biosecurity management functions, formulate biosecurity-related systems, review and supervise experimental projects involving biosecurity, train and assess personnel involved, etc. Previously, the Laboratory has formulated and launched the "Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Biological Laboratory Management Measures (for Trial Implementation)", and the establishment of the special management committee is to further improve the Laboratory's biosecurity management system on the basis of the existing system, promote experimental research in life sciences and its related disciplines, and provide effective measures to protect the lives and health of researchers involved in biosecurity experiments and the surrounding environment from contamination. On 25 October, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and Professional Committee of Microbial Biosecurity of Chinese Society of Microbiology jointly organised the "6th Workshop of the Microbial Biosecurity Committee of the Chinese Society of Microbiology in 2021 and the Greater Bay Area Biosecurity Forum" in Shenzhen. The conference focused on the key points and hot spots in the field of biosecurity in China under the new situation, and invited famous experts and scholars from various fields such as disease control, health, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, scientific research, customs and quality inspection, etc. to make presentations and discuss the construction and development of the national biosecurity system under the new situation, as well as the development strategy of biosecurity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
06
Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and Huawei reached a strategic cooperation
Launched MindSPONGE, a new generation of molecular simulations
In late April, the Molecular Simulations (SPONGE) was released, which was developed by Gao Yiqin research group of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and the MindSpore team of Huawei. For basic theoretical research, SPONGE is not only open source, but also aims at the pain point in the work of the majority of basic theory researchers in its design. It pays attention to the modularity and openness of the program, making it convenient for users to do personal customizations and secondary development of the program. More importantly, aiming at the next generation of molecular simulation integrating artificial intelligence technology, SPONGE not only provides Python language interface to support deep learning framework, but also further cooperates with Huawei MindSpore team to transplant SPONGE into Huawei's full-scene artificial intelligence framework MindSpore, so as to derive MindSponge, the molecular simulations that can seamlessly integrate with artificial intelligence algorithms. This software is not only the first open source universal molecular simulation framework released in China, but also the artificial intelligence technology represented by big data and deep learning, striving to become the next generation of molecular simulations leading the technological revolution in the era of computing. On July 21, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and Huawei signed an important strategic cooperation agreement at the "Industry Summit Forum and Signing Ceremony of Science and Innovation Cooperation Project of Guangming Science City". Through integrating the superior resources of both sides in BT and IT fields and advance BT+IT cross-border integration, to promote the improvement of cutting-edge scientific innovation and improvement of technology. They will work to foster a number of disruptive technologies for people's lives and health, which serve major national needs and lead the development of a new economic model. According to the agreement, both sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in the scientfic research, intellectual property and achievement transformation fields of biomedicine, molecular imaging and neurodegenerative diseases,. They will strengthen the practical application of scientific and technological innovation, and jointly solve the "bottleneck" problem of key technologies faced by the industry.
07
The projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China have been initiated, new heights by Shenzhen Bay Laboratory
On August 18, the National Natural Science Foundation of China officially announced the project evaluation results of 2021 centralized application period. Shenzhen Bay Laboratory has been approved 14 programs, including 1 Excellent Young Scientists Fund, 3 General Program, and 10 Young Scientists Fund. The number and amount of approved programs have doubled compared with the previous year. Since its establishment, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory has been approved to be funded by the Excellent Young Scientists Fund for two consecutive years, which shows the great attraction of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory to outstanding talents. The results of the laboratory construction of talent innovation highland have been initially shown. Along with the continuous development of scientific research team and actively advance scientific research, laboratory and scientific research of Shenzhen Bay always adhere to the leading edge of world science and technology, the main battleground of the national economy and the national major demands, and focus on people's life and health. For all these, Shenzhen Bay will strive to build the international first-class highlands for scientific research, exchange platform and innovation to make contributions to build Shenzhen pilot demonstration Area.
08
"Science and China" Academician and Expert Visit Group
The 10th Greater Bay Area lecture tour launched at Shenzhen Bay Laboratory
On September 27th, the 10th Greater Bay Area lecture tour was officially launched by "Science and China" academicians and experts tour group in Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. People attended the launching ceremony include Li Zhuowen, deputy secretary general of the People's Government of Shenzhen, Cai Ying, deputy secretary of Guangming District Committee and District Governor, Shi Bing, deputy director of Work Bureau of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qiu Xuan, inspector and member of party group of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee, Lin Xiang, secretary of the Party Committee of Shenzhen Association for Science and Technology, and leaders of functional departments of government at the city and district level and about 100 experts and scholars from relevant research institutions. Gu Dongfeng, vice president of Southern University of Science and Technology and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, presided over the ceremony. Wang Huaimin and Yu Guirui, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, respectively delivered keynote speeches on “Software Technology and Industry Development” and “Potential Contribution of Terrestrial Ecosystems to Carbon Neutrality and its Realization Approach”. After the keynote lectures, the academicians visited Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. During the visit, the academicians listened carefully to the introduction of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory in terms of operation management, R&D layout, talent gathering and technical support. The opening ceremony of the event was broadcasted live on China Media Group Mobile, Xinhua Live Cloud and other online platforms, attracting more than 160,000 views. People's Daily and other media made special coverage on the event, attracting more than 2 million views.
09
Academician Zhong Nanshan visited Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and exchanged on how to build the National Strategic Science and Technology Force System
On November 5, Zhong Nanshan, the recipient of the Medal of the Republic, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and renowned respiratory expert, visited Shenzhen Bay Laboratory with his team for in-depth talks on strengthening regional research cooperation and enhancing academic exchanges between institutions. Zheng Hongbo, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen, Cai Ying, Secretary of Guangming District Committee and District Governor attended the discussion. Wu Yundong, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, presided over the meeting, and Hu Xiaojun, Party Secretary of the Laboratory, attended the meeting. Academician Zhong Nanshan listened to the report on the construction of the laboratory platform, especially the cutting-edge research progress of the laboratory in the prevention and treatment of major infectious diseases. He fully affirmed the achievements of the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory in basic research, interdisciplinary and industrial cooperation in the short term. Academician Zhong pointed out that Shenzhen Bay Laboratory is adjacent to Hong Kong, so it should grasp its geographical advantages, and make good use of Shenzhen's position as an international hub at the forefront of reform and opening up. It should gives full play to the advantages of new system concentrating nationwide effort and resources on key national undertakings and explore its own characteristics to better contribute to the national innovation-driven development strategy. Academician Zhong stressed that scientific research institutions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area should strengthen coordination, taking advantage of the leading role of the national strategic scientific and technological forces to support mutual development and optimize resource allocation. They should jointly create a healthy scientific research environment, build a complete innovation ecosystem, and dare to undertake the major national scientific and technological tasks to service national strategic demands.
10
Explore the deep integration of science and technology and clinical practice
Shenzhen Bay PET Molecular Imaging Technology and Clinical Application Forum successfully held in 2021
On December 19, the "Shenzhen Bay PET Molecular Imaging Technology and Clinical Application Forum of 2021" was successfully held by Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and co-organized by Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. There were 15 senior scholars, clinicians and engineers in the field of PET, who have given academic reports, and jointly focused on PET molecular imaging technology and clinical application. More than 100 people participated in the forum online and offline. The conference gathered experts and scholars in the field of PET technology and clinical application to discuss molecular imaging and clinical application. The latest ideas and viewpoints in related fields were constantly collided here, generating innovative sparks of thought. The conference aims to respond to the national call for entrepreneurship and innovation, and actively cooperate with the national policy in healthcare industry. Based on the construction opportunities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Area and the foundation of industrial development. It is going to pursue innovation-driven development and promote discipline development and industry combination to build a high-level academic exchange platform.
