HNU Establishes High-Throughput Molecular Compendium of Materia Medica Hainan Pharmaceutical Innovation R&D Engineering Center
“As a major maritime country, China is among the earliest worldwide to use marine medicine for disease treatment. Medical classics over the past centuries have laid a solid foundation for modern marine medicine research. However, TCM research primarily focused on land-based natural resources and failed to explore and develop deeply undersea medicinal resources due to technological limitations. Thus, it is by no means easy to find medicine from the ocean. Even with the rapidly updated technology nowadays, analyzing and explaining the structurally unique and complex marine medicine remains a daunting task”, said Cheng Jing, CAE (Chinese Academy of Engineering) member, Chair Professor of Tsinghua University and Director of National Engineering Research Center for Beijing Biochip Technology. Cheng made these remarks on July 2nd at the launch ceremony of “High-Throughput Molecular Compendium of Materia Medica Hainan Pharmaceutical Innovation R&D Engineering Center” (hereinafter referred to as the Center) held at Hainan University (HNU).
To accelerate the innovation of marine medicine and southern Chinese medicine, Cheng, along with HNU President Luo Qingming, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have jointly proposed establishing the Center which will leverage cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), organoid chips, and high-content screening.
The Center will build on HNU’s research strengths in biomedical engineering, marine medicine and southern Chinese medicine, utilize the biochip technology of the National Engineering Research Center for Beijing Biochip Technology (and CapitalBio Corporation) and the molecular Compendium of Materia Medica and industrial resources of Beijing CapitalBio Pharma. This in-depth integration of industry, academia, and research aims to foster innovative collaboration.
Signing ceremony (courtesy of organizer)
Developing marine medicine is a key component of blue economy strategy
The ocean, the cradle of life, is dubbed as the “blue repository of medicine”, for its plentiful medicinal resources. Its special environment—characterized by high salinity, high pressure, low oxygen, and limited light exposure—has caused marine organisms to produce numerous substances which have unusual chemical structures and unique physiological activities and functions. The biodiversity of the ocean far exceeds that of the land, and the success rate of developing medicine from marine sources is 2-3 times higher than from non-marine sources, according to foreign research literature.
China’s plan to build a strong maritime country was first mentioned in the 18th CPC National Congress report, and both the 19th and 20th CPC National Congress reports called for its acceleration, which means it has been upgraded to a national strategy.
“Marine medicine development is a crucial part of the blue economy strategy. The quest for medicinal resources in the ocean to develop biopharmaceuticals has become one of the most contested fields globally”, said Cheng Jing, citing initiatives such as the EU’s “PharmaSea Project”, the U.S. “Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Program”, Japan’s “Aquamarine Fukushima”, and the UK’s “Marine Biological Association”.
In China, historical medical classics such as “Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing” (“The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica Classic”), “Xin Xiu Ben Cao” (“Newly Revised Canon of Materia Medica”), and “Ben Cao Gang Mu” (“Compendium of Materia Medica”) have documented the use of marine medicine in therapeutic recipes and dietary treatments, providing a solid foundation for modern marine medicine research.
“However, the foraging and identification of medicinal herbs in ancient times were technologically restricted, and TCM research focused only on land-based natural resources. Lack of technological support has made the R&D of undersea medicinal resources impracticable”, said Cheng.
In his address at the ceremony, Luo highlighted the necessity of modernizing the made-in-China R&D equipment so that TCM industry can realize overall upgrading. The Center will establish China’s first fully automated high-throughput platform for screening marine medicine and southern Chinese medicine, which can automate the entire process of screening and evaluation, thus significantly improving the efficiency, accuracy and reproducibility. It will markedly accelerate the R&D and optimization of marine medicine and southern Chinese medicine, increase the success rate and bring greater potential for new marine pharmaceutical innovation.
Building a global innovation hub for marine medicine through the integration of industry, academia, and research
Despite advancements, China’s marine medicine research is confronted with multiple challenges, such as the structural peculiarity and complexity of marine medicines, and the difficulty in identifying the active ingredients and explaining efficacy mechanisms. These challenges have hampered the exploration and utilization of marine medicine.
The Center will utilize the pioneering “molecular Compendium of Materia Medica” developed by Cheng Jing’s research team, which combines life sciences and AI technology to precisely screen TCM formulations. By employing AI to identify disease molecular signaling pathways and extensive gene expression data from TCM, it aims to quantitatively evaluate the effects of Chinese medicine on reversing disease pathways, thus establishing a dual-system for drug screening and evaluation and enabling scientific, digital, and intelligent analysis, screening and formulation of marine medicine and southern Chinese medicine.
With the aim to develop “China’s medicines” which fit with the genetic and physical characteristics of Chinese people, Cheng Jing’s team has so far constructed a precise screening model for Chinese medicine formulations by analyzing over a billion real gene expression data points from 1,200 extracts from Chinese medicines and food on nine major disease cell models, and studied 30 million core signaling pathway data points with AI technology. This model can quickly predict the efficacy of Chinese medicine combinations, optimizing drug components and significantly boosting the efficiency of new drug development in TCM.
The Center seeks to pool the best marine research resources across China and foster collaborative innovation among leading teams through complementing resource advantages. Leveraging HNU’s geographical and academic strengths, it will give full play to the advantages of the biochip technology of the National Engineering Research Center for Beijing Biochips, the molecular Compendium of Materia Medica and industrial resources of CapitalBio Pharma. Based on the notion of “screening materia medica with state-of-the-art technology”, it aims to create a molecular database of materia medica native to Hainan and promote the formation of the full chain of innovative medicine development in Hainan.
“Hopefully, the Center will accelerate marine medicine innovation and usher in a new era for independent medicine R&D in Hainan, and thus contributing to the new quality productive forces and creating a global innovation hub of marine medicine”, Cheng Jing remarked.
Source from SienceNet
Translated by Han Yunsheng
Proofread by Kuang Xiaowen, Yang Jie
