When Qi Lubin first arrived at the Hangzhou Medical Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (referred to as the Hangzhou Medical Institute), it was still a construction site.
It was July 2020, filled with anticipation for the first medical-named research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his love for the "paradise on earth" Hangzhou, he was ready to start his postdoctoral work at the Hangzhou Medical Institute. Seeing the busy cranes and scaffolding, he felt a bit anxious: "When will we be able to start experiments? Will it affect the progress of my postdoctoral work?"
Hangzhou Medical Institute quickly showed him the "Zhejiang speed." Just over a month later, he had a bright new laboratory, and the experimental equipment was quickly prepared.
Qi Lubin's postdoctoral career set sail on time. On May 8th, at the opening ceremony of the Sixth Frontiers of Molecular Medicine Forum and the Fifth Anniversary Academic Event of the Hangzhou Medical Institute, Qi Lubin took the stage as a young representative to speak. He expressed his pride in being a postdoctoral fellow at the medical institute, being able to witness each other's growth from the beginning, stating, "It is my fortune."
Hangzhou Medical Institute. Fang Linming Photography?
Building a High-Level Team
On May 8, 2019, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province signed a framework agreement for medical cooperation, establishing a collaboration to jointly build the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Basic Medicine and Oncology (later renamed). On February 23, 2023, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Hangzhou Medical Research Institute was officially approved as a directly affiliated institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Located in the not-so-bustling town of Hangzhou Medicine Port, Hangzhou Medical Institute exudes a strong atmosphere of medical innovation. Within this entrepreneurial park of less than 6 square kilometers, not only have 7 pharmaceutical giants such as MSD, Bayer, and Pfizer settled in, but also a large number of domestic medical innovation enterprises have taken root here.
The rise of Hangzhou Medical Institute has quickly become a talent hub for the Medicine Port town. At the fifth-anniversary academic event, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Tan Weihong presented the "report card" on talent team construction: Over the past 5 years, through internal training and external recruitment, Hangzhou Medical Institute has gathered more than 700 research personnel and graduate students; in addition to multiple teams of academicians, one-third of the recipients of national-level talent projects and half of the recipients of provincial-level talent projects are key scientific personnel. In December 2023, Hangzhou Medical Institute also successfully obtained approval for the cultivation of doctoral degrees in pharmacy and master's degrees in biology and medicine, laying a solid foundation for the training of high-level medical talents.
Tan Weihong at the 5th-anniversary academic event of Hangzhou Medical Institute. Photo by Fang Linming.
It is worth mentioning that when Qi Lubin joined, Hangzhou Medical Institute had just been approved to establish a national postdoctoral research workstation. In less than 4 years, the postdoctoral group has grown to over 200 people.
In addition to talent recruitment and nurturing, Hangzhou Medical Institute, in its entrepreneurial stage, actively creates conditions to support and nurture talent.
Qi Lubin recalls that when he first arrived at the institute, he needed a specialized optical microscope for experiments. "As a newcomer, buying equipment independently, I mustered the courage to make the request. To my surprise, the response was quick—any reasonable and necessary equipment for experiments would be fully supported for procurement." With the support of this equipment, his experiments progressed smoothly, leading to the publication of an SCI paper.
Upholding an innovative institute mechanism
In his report, Tan Weihong clearly pointed out the positioning and characteristics of Hangzhou Medical Institute: focusing on the health and lives of the people, emphasizing basic science-driven medical research.
Daring to propose the positioning of "basic science-driven medical research" inevitably involves the close connection between Hangzhou Medical Institute and Zhejiang Cancer Hospital. At the inception of the cooperation between Zhejiang Province and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to jointly establish Hangzhou Medical Institute, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital was included in the collaboration framework. Tan Weihong also served as the director of Zhejiang Cancer Hospital.
"We advocate for problem-oriented clinical issues, fully utilizing the results of basic research, closely integrating with clinical doctors, directly serving patients, utilizing private capital and government support, and conducting research and tackling challenges in an organized manner," Tan Weihong said. At Hangzhou Medical Institute, clinical doctors are considered the "most valuable human resources," not only collaborating with researchers but many also becoming "clinical research-oriented doctors."
Fang Xiaohong, Deputy Director and Researcher at Hangzhou Medical Institute, told China Science News that Hangzhou Medical Institute and Zhejiang Cancer Hospital are like one family living in the front and back yards. The researchers in the backyard and the clinical doctors in the front yard interact closely, greatly benefiting the elevation of research topics and the clinical transformation of results.
The innovative mechanism of the institute and hospital as "two wings integrated" under the background of provincial and institutional cooperation is more conducive to tackling major challenges in the field of health. Fang Xiaohong stated that the challenges in the field of health are becoming increasingly complex and diverse. Close cooperation between institutions and hospitals allows researchers to consider local industrial innovation needs and identify real clinical problems at the beginning of topic selection.
Harvesting a batch of "noteworthy" achievements
It is well known that during the 5-year history of Hangzhou Medical Institute, three years coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Putting "medical" in the service of the people. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Hangzhou Medical Institute responded promptly to the national urgency by rapidly developing China's first batch of rapid nucleic acid diagnostic instant test (POCT) products and exporting them to over 70 countries worldwide.
In addition, Hangzhou Medical Institute established the "Nucleic Acid Drugs and Vaccines Center" to advance the research of mRNA vaccines. In May 2022, the center made a breakthrough in the targeted delivery technology of mRNA vaccines, obtaining four national authorized patents, and conducting pre-clinical tests with companies like AmyVax and the Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, the team is using the targeted delivery technology of mRNA vaccines to develop cell therapy and tumor vaccines.
In Tan Weihong's retrospective report, "nucleic acid rapid testing" was listed as one of the "5 major scientific research achievements worth mentioning" at Hangzhou Medical Institute.
Over the five years, Hangzhou Medical Institute, characterized by basic science-driven, problem-oriented clinical research, major platform support, and interdisciplinary integration, has conducted organized research and development, achieving a series of remarkable results: the world's first "nucleic acid aptamer nuclear imaging agent" entering clinical trials, capable of specifically detecting tiny lesions missed by conventional methods, "illuminating" tumors in the body, achieving "inflammation-cancer differentiation"; mapping the largest "triple-negative breast cancer protein molecular atlas" in China, proposing a new system for molecular typing and treatment of triple-negative breast cancer; introducing the new concept of "intelligent nucleic acid molecular computing"...
Furthermore, Hangzhou Medical Institute led the approval of three chief projects and 14 sub-projects under the Ministry of Science and Technology's national key research and development program in "synthetic biology," biological macromolecules, and microbiomes, taking the lead in the discipline of "medical synthetic biology."
How did Hangzhou Medical Institute achieve remarkable results in such a short time? Tan Weihong stated that as a research institution directly under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a young "national team" platform, Hangzhou Medical Institute can attract talents with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and research experiences. The cross-disciplinary integration of everyone, under a systematic and institutionalized layout, gives them the confidence to aim at the global forefront of health, addressing more complex research challenges.
Currently, the institute has established over 10 laboratories and platforms, including the Intelligent Molecular Diagnosis Center, Nucleic Acid Molecular Medicine Center, Innovative Drugs and Precision Diagnosis and Treatment Center, Life Omics Center, and Clinical Research and Development Center, with over 155 national and provincial research projects approved.
Tan Weihong stated that in the future, Hangzhou Medical Institute will focus on joint research in multiple important directions such as single-cell multidimensional molecular mapping, tumor mRNA vaccines, targeted nuclear medicine, blood molecular mapping, striving to seize the high ground of science and technology in the field of health.
