Congenital cataracts is a disease of the eye most present after birth or during childhood. It causes blindness and visual impairment. The incidence in China is 0.05 %. LIN Hau-Tien at Sun Yat-sen University’s Eye Center and colleagues have used an AI-based system named “CC-Cruiser” to identify this disease in children, and validated it in two hospitals with a success rate of over 98 %.

China Bio news release, January 12, 2018

In 2017, the members of this alliance conducted more than 100 large-scale exhibitions, forums and technical seminars focused on industry difficulties and hot issues, and launched a series of environmental and social issues such as straw harvesting, storage and transportation, comprehensive management of livestock manure and labor employment. They brought together more than 200 kinds of straw products produced by hundreds of enterprises to create a green environmental protection experience store, and established the country’s first straw industrial e-commerce platform.

China Bio news release, January 12, 2018

Eight education institutions, including Tsinghua, Zhejiang and Sorbonne University, established a „France-China AI Consortium“.

CAS news release, January 11, 2018

The center will have 4 members: ITER China, Institute of Plasma Physics at Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics (all CAS) and France’s CEA. The center will conduct research on fusion science and experimental physics, safety standards and technical standards for fusion energy and next generation of fusion research devices.
A tungsten divertor for tungsten environment in a steady-state Tokamak reacto, as a first joint research project, is already under development.

CAS news release, January 11, 2018

According to a series of official documents, a future of clean heating” will be supported by the use of biomass. By 2020, the installed capacity of biomass electricity generation will exceed 12 million kilowatts, the annual utilization of biomass molding fuels will be about 30 million tons, the annual utilization of biomass gas will be about 10 billion cubic meters, and the biomass heating area will be about 1 billion m2, the direct replacement of about 30 million tons of coal. By 2035, the installed capacity of biomass electricity generation will exceed 25 million kilowatts, the annual utilization of biomass briquette will be about 50 million tons, the annual utilization of biomass gas will be about 25 billion cubic meters, and the biomass heating area will be about 2 billion Square meters, the direct replacement of about 60 million tons of coal.”

China Bio news release, January 5, 2018

As of December 31, 2017, 40 pharmaceutical companies were listed on the A-share market, 6 were from the US on the Hong Kong stock market, and 107 were new.
Geographically, 29 of these companies were listed in Guangdong, 17 in Jiangsu, 12 in Zhejiang and 10 in Hubei.

China Bio news release, January 5, 2018

According to a vote by WeChat, the winners were

1. Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-City
2. Beijing Yizhuang Bio-Medicine Park
3. Jiangsu Wuxi (Huishan) Life Science and Technology Industrial Park
4. Shandong International Biotechnology Park
5. Suzhou BioBay
6. Nanjing Biomedicine Valley
7. Guangzhou International Bio Island
8. Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park
9. Beijing Zhongguancun Life Science Park, and
10. Wuhan Optics Valley Biological City

In the article, many details are given about each of these parks and why they are so popular.

China Bio January 3, 2018

According to a rating on Biology Discovery Journal and WeChat in which 10.000ds of scientists participated, the selection was for

1. HE Lin, Shanghai Jiaotong University Bio-X Research Institute
2. SHI Yigong, Tsinghua University, founder of Zhejiang West Lake Institute of higher learning
3. QIAO Jie, Peking University Third Hospital, elected member of Chinese Academy of Engineering
4. WANG Jian, CEO of BGI, promoted the listing of A shares of Huada Gene
5. ZHANG Feng, Broad Institute, MIT, key breakthroughs on CRISPR
6. LU Yuming, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, development of liquid biopsy used in nasopharyngeal carcinoma detection
7. YU Dechao, Cinda Biologics Co., key person in China’s most productive drug company 2017
8. YANG Lulu, eGenesis Co., solved the problems of organ xenografting
9. CHEN Zijiang, Shandong University, new methods of blocking genetic mitochondrial diseases
10. GU Zhen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University
development of smart patch technology for diabetes, cancer, obesity and other fields

China Bio news release, January 3, 2017

According to a guidance report issued by the NDRC and other institutions, by 2020, gasified straw will be the main energy resource for rural life and will be supplied to households, township schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. for heating. The comprehensive utilization of straw in the region will reach 85%, an effective alternative to rural use of scattered coal. The NDRC and other departments will promote the construction of standardized storage facilities for straw and special equipment for straw storage and transportation, in addition to incentive measures.

China Bio news release, January 3, 2018

Biology Discovery Publisher, a lead journal in the field, made the following rating based on a survey among readers, and has very specific arguments laid out in the article:

传奇生物. Nr. 1 Legend Biotech (affiliation of Genescript Biotech Co. Ltd (HK01548)), Nanjing.
亚盛医药 Nr. 2 Ascentage Pharma http://en.ascentagepharma.com/about.html, Suzhou
信达生物 Nr. 3 Innovent Biologics http://www.innoventbio.com/en/, Suzhou
百济神州 Nr. 4 BeiGene http://www.beigene.com/company/about-us/, Headquarter Beijing
世和基因 Nr. 5 Genesen https://www.geneseeq.com, Nanjing
丽珠医药 Nr. 6 LivZon Pharma Group http://www.livzon.com.cn/English/, Zhuhai
华大基因 Nr. 7 BGI https://www.bgi.com, Shenzhen
康宁杰瑞 Nr. 8 Alphamab Co. Ltd. http://www.alphamab.com/en/index.html., Suzhou
基石药业 Nr. 9 Stone pharmaceuticals, Shanghai
誉衡药业 Nr. 10 Gloria Pharmaceuticals http://www.gloria.cc, Harbin

*English names of companies: Dr Xin XIONG’s translation is gratefully acknowledged

China Bio news release, January 3, 2018

ZHANG Wei and YANG Mingzhu at the CAS National Center for Nanoscience in Beijing have developed a large-scale manufacturing method of barcoded paper chips and a barcode reader that can be used for bar-coding by means of paper stacking and cutting technology. The paper-based chips can be used for multiplexed analysis in nucleic acid testing, drug screening and cell behavior research.

CAS news release, January 2, 2018

The project will cover major areas of China, focussing on the dominant Han ethnic group but also including nine ethnic minorities with a population of 5 million or more. A major goal is to study transformation from health to disease, environmental impacts, and the interactions between environmental factors and genes, and its influence on people’s health. The study is aimed to provide references for medical research or clinical diagnosis and treatment of diseases in China. The entire process of sequencing and analysis of the project is scheduled to be completed within four years. Chief Scientist is WANG Yadong, Harbin Institute of Technology.

China Bio news release, December 29, 2017

The Chinese blood market, with liberalized price control, grew by 16.7 % from 2015 to 2016. It is served by 28 companies which operate about 200 collection stations. There are 11 types of blood products of which human serum albumin is 54 %, human immunoglobulins 24 %. Factor VIII accounted for 6.3 % of blood products in 2016. Many more details are provided in the article.

China Bio news release, December 28, 2017

The National GenBank with headquarters in Shenzhen will eventually integrate other regional centers already established in China. Suzhou Biological Sample Bank (National Bank of Suzhou Library), formerly known as Suzhou City Serum (Gene) Library, was a project of Suzhou Municipal Government started in 2010; its design stems from a 2004 China-Britain chronic disease prospective study. As of November 30, 2017, a total of 145,742 samples were stored in the library, including 2005 whole-blood samples of severe pneumonia.

China Bio news release, December 26, 2017

According to QIAN Qijun, director of the Shanghai Cell Therapy Engineering Research Center, China will have at least a 20 companies or institutions to start CAR-T clinical trials soon, as many funds have been or are being flooded into the field of cellular immunotherapy. According to Founder Securities, at present there are more than 20 domestic enterprises and hospitals which participate in R&D of CAR-T cell therapy, and the number of CAR-T cell therapy clinical trials registered by domestic R & D units has reached over 100.

China Bio news release, December 22, 2017

The Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology Research Team around MA Yanhe at CAS TIB has developed a versatile CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing toolbox for C. glutamicum. Cas9 and gRNA expression cassettes were reconstituted to combat Cas9 toxicity and facilitate effective termination of gRNA transcription. Co-transformation of Cas9 and gRNA expression plasmids was exploited to overcome high-frequency mutation of cas9, allowing not only highly efficient gene deletion and insertion with plasmid-borne editing templates (efficiencies up to 60.0 and 62.5%, respectively) but also simple and time-saving operation. Furthermore, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated ssDNA recombineering was developed to precisely introduce small modifications and single-nucleotide changes into the genome of C. glutamicum with efficiencies over 80.0%. Notably, double-locus editing was also achieved in C. glutamicum.

Microbial Cell Factories 2017, 16:205

Batteries based on Mg anodes are safe, show high volumetric capacity, and inexpensive, but the lack of compatible electrolytes and suitable cathodes has restricted the development of rechargeable Mg batteries. A group at CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy has developed to this end a new type of organic magnesium borate based electrolyte which was synthesized via a facile in-situ reaction of tris(hexafluoroisopropyl)borate [B(HFP)3], MgCl2 and Mg powders in 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME). It features high Mg plating/stripping performance, such as high anodic stability up to 3.3 V (vs. Mg/Mg2+), high ionic conductivity of 5.58 mS·cm–1, low overpotential of 0.11 V for plating process and above 98% Coulombic efficiency. The electrolyte is well compatible with sulfur positive electrodes. Magnesium sulfur batteries using this electrolyte were demonstrated to endure more than 100 cycles without obvious capacity decay and to enable fast conversion process, even at the charging current density up to 500 mA·g–1.

CAS news release, December 19, 2017

The projects, which run until 2020, are:
1. Biomedical materials research and development and replacement of tissue and tissue remediation
2. Digital clinic equipment research and development
3. Major chronic non-communicable diseases prevention and control
4. Research on Prevention and Control of Reproductive Health and Major Birth Defects
5. Precision Medicine Research
Each of the projects contains dozens of subprojects which are summarized under the MOST website

China Bio news release, December 19, 2017

As the use of biomass energy is moving only slowly, the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Environmental Protection have jointly started a pilot project on power generation coupling coal-incineration and biomass. Priority for cogeneration is limited to projects on coal-fired agricultural and forestry residues coupled with power generation technology projects, focusing on 13 major grain-producing provinces, and coal-fired waste incineration power generation technology projects, with emphasis on municipalities directly under the Central Government were landfill by sludge is difficult. The amount of manure and rubbish produced in China’s rural areas is estimated as 3.8 billion tons, and of straw at about 690 million tons. Biomass raw materials in rural areas are abundant, and 80% can be processed and utilized. The situation urban garbage is more complicated.

China Bio news release, December 15, 2017

The group of Qiang WANG at the institute used waste streams from biomass power plants as nutrients for Chlorellac ultivation and found that Chlorella cultures produced 39 % more lipids and exhibited higher growth rates. The cultures reduced the NOx present in the flue gas and sequestered CO2, with a NOx reduction (DeNOx) efficiency of ∼100%, and a CO2 sequestration rate of 0.46 g L−1 d−1. The residual medium was almost nutrient-free and suitable for recycling.

CAS news release, December 13, 2017