East China Normal University launches new biomedical research center

East China Normal University on April 20 launched a biomedical synthetic biology research center for mammalian and medical synthetic biology.

The center will play a key role in strengthening biomedical education and research at the university, said Qian Xuhong, principal of the university and director of the center.

Ye Haifeng, executive director of the center and researcher at the university's School of Life Sciences,said the center will focus on developing techniques for intelligent diagnosis and treatment of diseases through synthetic biological approaches, covering artificial intelligence cells, gene and cell therapy, and tumor intelligent immunotherapy.

"It's expected that techniques the center develops will be further applied to translation research in five years," said Ye.

Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary subject that combines engineering principles with biology, enabling scientists to construct new biological entities such as enzymes, or to redesign existing biological systems.

It can be applied to medicine, material science, and environmental science.

Chinese cities such as Shenzhen, Tianjin and Beijing have established synthetic biology research centers.

"The country has made achievements in the research of synthetic biology, but more efforts should be devoted to the further industrialization of the field," said Ye.