China in Africa

A team of scientists from Purdue University around ZHU Jian-Kang and the CAS Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology has used CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology to develop a variety of rice that produces 25-31 percent more grain. The team made mutations to 13 genes associated with the phytohormone abscisic acid, involved in plant stress tolerance and suppression of growth. Of several varieties created, one produced a plant that had little change in stress tolerance but produced 25 percent more grain in a field test in Shanghai, and 31 percent more in a field test conducted on China’s Hainan Island.

CAS news release, May 26, 2018

China’s Ministry of Science and Technoloty (MOST) issued new guidelines to recruit more international researchers. They will be involved in strategy-making, research, program management and assessment, and encouraged to collaborate with Chinese counterparts in joint research programs. According to the guidelines, China will make full use of global innovation resources and deeply integrate into global innovative networks in the era of economic and scientific globalization.

CAS news release, May 24, 2018

XIONG Wei and HUANG Guangming of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) o have uncovered a novel sunlight-activated biosynthetic pathway in the mouse brain. Using the rotarod performance test, mice without prior UV exposure required 1/3 longer training time to adapt to the rotation speed of the rod. Moderate UV exposure elevated the level of urocanic acid in blood (UCA), which is later converted to glutamate in brain cells thus contributing to enhanced learning capacity. Besides learning, UV-triggered GLU synthesis could contribute to more sunlight-induced mental and nervous changes such as memory and mood.

CAS news release, May 23, 2018

BGI has invested heavily in R&D and innovation of new sequencing devices, including an independent IT platform which provides professional and easy-to-use biometric information cloud services for research institutions, hospitals and other users. BGI has also certified some products internationally. The HPV genotyping test kit (semiconductor sequencing method) and the amino acid and carnitine detection kit (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) developed by BGI have obtained a CFDA medical device registration certificate. BGI Europe A/S obtained a CE certification for in vitro diagnostic medical devices and can now be marketed within the EU. As to quality management of medical devices, several subsidiaries have obtained ISO 13485 certification.

China Bio news release, May 22, 2018

Haier Biomedical in Qingdao promotes 5U (U-Blood, U-Biobank, U-Vaccine, U-Reagent, U-Stemcell), an IoT Contact Network linking medical institutions and home users for sharing medical and life sciences big data. The Haier U-Blood network is already implemented in Qingdao, involving the whole process of blood transfusion information including logistics, temperature monitoring and traceable big data. It is already copied by more than 10 provinces and cities in Shandong Province, Zhejiang Province, in view of blood safety and security of 30 million surgical and emergency patients.

China Bio news release, May 2, 2018

The service was started two years after launching its Tiantong-1 01 mobile communications satellite into orbit. The goverment decided to develop their own satphone service after a major earthquake hit Sichuan province in 2008. The quake put an end to all ground communication systems, and the whole disaster relief depended on foreign satellite systems. Satellite Tiantong-1 01 was delivered in 2010 and launched in 2016. It features broad coverage and strong communication capabilities. New all-mode satellite mobile phones can now be used as ordinary phones in cities, but can also be turned to satellite mode in places with poor connection.

CAS news release, May 21, 2018

The automatic stem cell induction and cultivation equipment covers an area of ​​25 square meters and consists of six modules: automated incubator, automated liquid processing system, microscopic online observation system, high-accuracy clone picker, culture dish delivery system, and equipment control system. The reprogramming of stem cells begins with an incubator for 24 individually induced pluripotent stem cells in parallel. Then, the 6-well culture plate is transferred from the incubator to the operation chamber by a robot arm in a class b environment. Subsequently, the culture plate is placed in a microscopic imaging system with a 1.2 micron resolution. The entire process does not exceed 10 minutes. The automated process is said to correspond to a GMP-level cell preparation equivalent to 24 persons of skilled staff. The clinical application of cell therapy in hospitals requires stem cell preparation, and automatic stem cell induction and culture equipment has been gradually promoted in research centers of various research institutes or first class hospitals.

China Bio news release, May 18, 2018

Transparent conductive films (TCFs) are an important component of touch screens, smart windows, liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and organic photovoltaic cells. CHENG Huiming and LIU Chang at CAS Institute of Metal Research have synthesized transparent conductive films of good optoelectronic performance by a chemical vapor deposition method. The pristine SWCNT films showed a low sheet resistance of 41Ω cm-1 at 90% transmittance for 550-nm light. After HNO3 treatment, the sheet resistance further decreases to 25Ω cm-1, better than that of conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) on a flexible substrate. Using this SWCNT film as anodes, the OLEDs constructed demonstrated a high current efficiency of 75 cd A-1, 7.5 times higher than that of the best reported CNT anode–based OLEDs. The OLEDs also exhibited excellent flexibility and stability.

CAS news release, May 15, 2018

China’s new mother vessel for the manned deep-sea research submersible Jiaolong will be named Shenhai Yihao (Deep Sea No. 1). Jiaolong, which is undergoing a major maintenance check at the base, will start a global deep-sea scientific exploration mission in 2020. The new vessel, to be delivered around March 2019, will have a displacement of approximately 4,000 tons and be able to travel 12,000 nautical miles per journey. Named after a mythical dragon, Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June of 2012. Jiaolong has dived 158 times in the past five years.

CAS news release, May 14, 2018

A team around SONG Wenjuan  from Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, LIN Hui from Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other researchers investigated the occurrence and distribution antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in Chinese and global lakes. The meta-analysis showed that seven antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole, sulfamerazine, sulfameter, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, erythromycin, and roxithromycin) were found at high concentrations in both lake water and lake sediments. No significant difference in sulfonamides concentration, but a significant difference in quinolones was found in lake water from China and that from other countries worldwide.  There was no significant difference in the concentration of sulfonamide resistance genes (sul1 and sul2) in lake water and river water.

CAS news release, May 4, 2018

Following an initiative oft he Ministry of Agriculture, China attempts to improve rural milk qualit standards. By now, 15 milk enterprises in China have passed the high-quality milk standard tests which are claimed to be more stringent than current standards of the dairy industry in Europe and America. Since the Sanlu infant milk powder incident in 2008, the problems exposed by the domestic dairy industry have caused consumers to have a great deal of mistrust, and imported dairy products have flooded into the domestic market. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Statistics, China’s total milk imports reached 1,955,600 tons in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%. In 2016, China imported 370,600 tons of milk powder from New Zealand, accounting for 83.3% of China’s total milk powder imports. Improved quality standards and their monitoring is hoped to ensure the supply of nutritious, safe, and reliable quality milk products to consumers but there seems still a long way to go.

China Bio news release, May 3, 2018

The group around SUN Jibin used a ribosomal 5S rRNA gene as a promoter to mediate the expression of sgRNA in a novel and efficient CRISPR/Cas9 system which enabled Cas9 to cut 100% of the Aspergillus niger genome. This allowed to establish an efficient Aspergillus niger genome editing toolkit. With a 40 bp short homology donor DNA, single- and multi-site knock-ins and large 48-kb DNA knockout genomes obtained with accurate editing. The new CRISPR/Cas9 approach effectively solved the problem that Aspergillus niger espresses sgRNA activity.

CAS news release, May 3, 2018

The group around ZHAO Guang has engineered E. coli to produce a range of value-added chemicals starting from D-xylose, a sugar which makes up about 25 % of biomass. The researchers introduced the xylose metabolism pathway of Caulobacter crescentus into E. coli, thereby establishing a new biosynthetic pathway to glycolic acid and ethylene glycol. The yield of glycolic acid was 43.6 g/L, the xylose conversion rate 46.4%, and production efficiency reached 0.91 g/L/h. The yield of ethylene glycol was 72g/L, the conversion rate of xylose 40%, and the production rate 1.38g/L/h. In a previous study, the group achieved efficient biotransformation of xylose to xylonate and 1,2,4-butanetriol.

CAS news release, April 25, 2018

China has over 3.5 million new cases of cancer every year, and the anti-tumor drug market has exceeded 100 billion yuan, about half of which is imported. In order to meet urgent needs, in recent years, China has introduced a number of policies to encourage and accelerate the listing of anti-cancer and other innovative drugs. As an example, there is a shortage of drugs and methods for the treatment of multiple myeloma. The domestic marketed drugs are far from meeting the needs of patients. The application for registration of anticancer drugs with obvious clinical advantages has now been included into the scope of priority review and approval, in order to accelerate the import of innovative drugs by changing the application of clinical trials from an approval system to a default one.

China Bio news release, April 28, 2018

LI Ning and colleagues have developed a biomimetic route to synthesize pyromellitic acid from lignocellulose. Based on this reagent, a three-component cycloaddition reaction catalyzed by proline using formaldehyde, crotonaldehyde or acrylate/fumarate as raw materials led to 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM), 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid (CHDA) or 1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylate in yields of more than 70%.

CAS news release, April 28, 2018