On December 19, Guangdong Province held a meeting in Guangzhou to launch the 1st batch of major programs for basic and applied research (here in after as Major Programs). QIN Weizhong, Vice Governor of Guangdong Province; ZHOU Wenneng, Deputy Director General of Department of Basic Research, Ministry of Science and Technology of China; and WANG Yan, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Planning, National Natural Science Foundation of China attended the meeting. Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) sent representatives to the meeting.
The meeting announced the 1st batch of major programs including 13 programs in total approved by Guangdong Province and also delivered work reports on the International Center for Applied Mathematics, National Natural Science Foundation Regional Innovation and Development Joint Fund and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory (here in after as Joint Laboratory). The meeting honored certificates to all approved Major Programs and presented plague to the Joint Laboratory.
Led by ZHAN Qimin, Director of SZBL, the SZBL program “The investigation of the tumor microenvironment heterogeneity and the recurrence, metastasis and therapeutic resistance of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)” (here in after as the ESCC program) was among the 1st batch of Major Programs be approved at provincial level. This SZBL program is initiated by the ZHAN Qimin-Cui Yongping group, and will unite research efforts from Peking University, Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Sichuan University and the City University of Hong Kong to collaboratively explore the molecular mechanism of tumor microenvironment heterogeneity in the recurrence, metastasis and therapeutic resistance of ESCC, and will find therapeutic strategies for ESCC. This study will promote the understanding towards ESCC and associated microenvironment heterogeneity and will lead to the discovery for novel bio-markers for ESCC. Successful study will be helpful to early diagnosis for ESCC and is expected to provide more individualized and effective therapy to the patients.
As QIN Weizhong pointed out on the meeting, that the regional competitiveness of Guangdong Province has been on the top for three consecutive years with PCT patents accounted nearly 50% for the overall domestic scale and basic research development ranked the No.3 nationwide. According to QIN Weizhong, Guangdong Province has attached high importance to the 1st batch of Major Programs and would launch services and provide efficiency to execute these programs in line with relevant policy and regulation. Guangdong would continue to increase investment in basic and applied research and to develop a funding system to manage major sci-tech programs. Cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China and institutions in Hong Kong and Macao would be further extended. Guangdong Province would also establish systems for basic research and diversify research investment mechanisms, in an effort to promote research inputs and research originality, QIN said.
The ESCC program as approved in the 1st batch of Guangdong provincial Major Programs demonstrates SZBL’s efforts in making research for better lives. In the days ahead, SZBL will continue to keep up with global science development and to conduct research that addresses the unmet needs for promoting a healthy nation.
