China in Africa

China Bio news release, March 18, 2015

Similar to doctors practicizing TCM, the robot (“Chinese Doctor No. One”) will investigate a patients tongue, breath and face and rely on stored information from TCM doctors for diagnosis. The study is promoted by Jianfeng FENG of Fudan University Institute of Mathematical Sciences and supported by Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine. A prototype should be available within one year. The program is part of the “Shanghai Brain Plan”.

China Bio news release, March 19, 2015

In an article on „The Generation of Rhythm-Related Reward and Emotion (RRRE) System“, Tianyan WANG of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Science suggests that every pitch interval between neighboring notes in music represents corresponding movement pattern through interpreting the Doppler effect of sound, which integrates music and dance into a common form—rhythmic movements. Animals have a rhythm-related reward and emotion (RRRE) system, which is further developed in humans into society-related rewards and emotions (SRREs). Both are evoked by music and dance, and have biological and social functions, which in turn, promote the evolution of music, dance and speech. About 20 years ago, an 8000 year old flute was unearthed in Henan Province.

Tianyan WANG, http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2015.00030/full

Fasong ZHOU and his group at the Center which is operated by Seed Group Co. has presented a chip containing the ESTs of the rice genome. The array will be used for targeted breeding, germplasm innovation and genetic fingerprinting. The Center was established in 2011.

China Bio news release, March 11, 2015

In an article on the prospects of water protection and sewage treatment in Guangzhou Province, Guangzhou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau deputy director Xie MING came up with the following figures: Guangzhou has a resident population of 18 million in its major cities, resulting in 4.65 million tons of sewage per day. In Guangzhou City, Guangzhou Co., Ltd. is the largest water sewage treatment enterprises with eight sewage treatment systems and a daily sewage treatment capacity of 2.98 million tons, with 1421 km of a pipeline network, responsible for the whole Guangzhou province, > 60% of the overall sewage processing tasks. However, the pipe network does not cover remote and rural areas with 1205 villages. 1184 among them are in a rural sewerage scheme, but only 471 have completed sewer construction. Rural sewage discharge is 2,300 tons / day, with operating costs from 0.8 to 1.0 yuan / ton. The annual management and maintenance costs will reach 6.7 billion to 84 billion, costs to be born by county and township governments. As a consequence, eco-dialysis” technologies with the use of surface-modified polymers as matrix material are now being discussed. Biodegradtion is along the principles of ecology, simulating natural rivers and their biodiversity. If the standard sewage emission is 0.2 tons / person / day, total daily sewage discharge of 500 people is 100 tons / day, ie 3000 tons / month, which would lead to operating costs of 0.067 yuan/ton, much lower than by sewer pipes and sewage treatment plants.”

China Bio news release, March 11, 2015

After having obtained the registration certificate for fetal chromosome aneuploidy detection (Down syndrome etc.) by China FDA, the instrument and kits have been put on the market. DNA detection is based on electrochemical base detection using pH changes.

China Bio news release, March 9, 2015

The group of Xining SHAO at Xiamen University has used an E. coli expression system to express HEV capsid protein. Because the virus-like particle structure is highly similar to the native virus, with a large number of immunodominant epitopes, the human body, it stimulates the body to produce a large number of antibodies directed against hepatitis E virus. In 2004, The vaccine entered Phase III clinical testing in 2007. After completion in 2009, 120,000 volunteers were vaccinated in Jiangsu Province, confirming the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety.

China Bio news release, March 9, 2015

China plans to put a permanently manned space station into orbit by 2022. As cargo transportation is crucial for this mission, China will develop such technology and launch Tianzhou-1 („heavenly vessel“) to meet its space lab Tiangong-2 („heavenly palace“) by 2016.

CAS news release, March 9, 2015

A group around Xian JU at CAS QIBEBT in Qingdao found that in microalgae, a complete set of proteins from the canonical ABA and CK sensing and signaling pathways is not essential, but individual components are present, suggesting stepwise recruitment of phytohormone signaling components. Nitrogen deficiency during nitrogen depletion led to activation of the ABA biosynthetic pathway and antagonistic transcription of CK biosynthetic genes, whereas the ABA level increased while the dominant bioactive CK forms decreased.

Yandu LU et al., Plant Journal DOI: 10.1111/tpj.12615

The groups of CAI Jun at CAS Beijing Institute of Genomics, GAO Shaorong at Tongji University and TIAN Jianhui at China Agricultural University showed by whole genome sequencing after sequential reprogramming that SNPs accumulated during the reprogramming steps. Functional annotation of SNPs demonstrated that these mutations would cause developmental failures in mice, but about two-thirds of the SNVs pre-existed in the all-iPSC mouse tissues which were generated during development, rather than merely by iPSC induction. In addition, retrotransposons were recurrently lost.

CAS news release, March 3, 2015

In the coming 5 years’ plan of MOST, the following topics will be pursued:
1. pluripotent stem cell dry maintenance. Genealogy, development of lineage markers, cell type conversion molecular modeling and gene regulation patterns.
2. The organization of obtaining stem cells. For nerves, liver, blood, kidneys and other vital reproductive system, isolate adult stem cells, reveal homeostasis mechanisms, establish cell labeling and separation technology.
3. differentiation of stem cells and cell transdifferentiation mechanism. Establish large-scale cultivation of stem cells, directed differentiation and transdifferentiation specific to a particular cell line function; establish lineage markers and separation and purification techniques.
4. Mechanism of cells in vivo. Explore transplanted cells and tissues interactions, immune tolerance and immune regulatory mechanisms, clarify cell transplant mechanism.
5. organ reconstruction based on stem cells. Use differentiation of stem cells outside the body, combined with intelligent biomaterials, tissue engineering, embryo engineering, to achieve nerve, liver, kidneys, reproductive system and other tissues, organs recycling.
6. stem cell repository. establishment of a representative sample library and associated diseases repository of stem cells; build patient-derived pluripotent stem cell lines, carry out high-throughput drug screening and gene therapy research.
7. stem cells pre-clinical evaluation. Established animal models of human diseases, including non-human primates, carry out stem cell transplantation in animal models including safety evaluation and long-term effectiveness.
8. transformation and application of stem cells. Stem cell therapy research, access to key technologies which can regulate stem cell proliferation, differentiation and function, promote the transformation and application of stem cells in the nerves, liver, blood, kidneys, reproductive and other fields.

China Bio news release, March 2, 2015

The group of JIANG Weihong at CAS SIBS in Shanghai achieved higher yields of pristinamycin, a S. pristinaespiralis antibiotic which can be used to treat MRSA infections, by an increase of gene copy numbers, metabolic engineering and absorption of the product in a macroporous resin. Yields were improved from 185 mg/L to over 1 g/L.

CAS news release, March 2, 2015

As the chemical composition of Ginseng is complex to control, the new method based on nested PCR reactions allows for fast, accurate and sensitive detection of ginseng, provides a simple and effective method for rapid quality control of proprietary Chinese medicines.

CAS news release, March 2, 2015

According to EPO’s president Benoit Battistelli, among the 2014 274174 patent applications, Chinese applicants ranked number 4 after the USA, Japan and Germany, an increase of 18.2 % vs. 2013. Among the granted 64.000 patents in 2014, the Chinese share was only 2 %. Most of the Chinese applications were in digital communication (Huawei and ZTE), most public applications came from CAS, Peking University and Tsinghua University

CAS news release, Feb. 27, 2015

The goats are borrowed from Shanghai Transgenic Research Center of Shanghai Genon Biological Products Co. In 2001, the company showed already 3 cloned sheep. The company offers many varieties of transgenic sheep and goat producing biopharmaceuticals in their milk, including human lactoferrin and human lysozyme. Their 300 acres farm in Nanhui can accomodate up to 10.000 transgenic animals.

China Bio news release, Feb. 25, 2015