Following an implementation plan of National Reform commission and several ministries, Tianjin and Shandong have issued implementation plans for promoting ethanol gasoline. Ethanol gasoline is cleaner than traditional gasoline and will ease air pollution. According to the program, key areas for prevention and control of air pollution such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and their surroundings will gradually shift to ethanol gasoline in 2018 and will be fully covered in 2019. By 2020, China will basically achieve a full coverage of vehicle ethanol gasoline. However, there remains an ethanol gasoline supply gap. The 13th Five-Year Plan of the Energy Bureau proposes that the output of fuel ethanol in China will reach 4 million tons by 2020, an increase of 54% over the current figure, not enought to fill the current demand gap of nearly 9.4 million tons of ethanol. Expansion of ethanol production capacity is essential, while the import policy may also be changed, e. g., by reducing the import tariff on fuel ethanol.

China Bio news release, December 11, 2017

The CAS Innovation Cooperation Center (Bangkok) will bethe first overseas organization promoting global science, technology and innovation. The center will encourage Chinese innovative enterprises to come to Southeast Asia to build an innovative China-ASEAN community. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has visited CAS for many times to help the two countries cooperate on various fields such as microbiology, rail transit, and GPS technology.

CAS news release, December 11, 2017

According to findings of a research team at CAS Institute of Virology, Wuhan, a distinct population of horseshoe bats in a remote cave in Yunnan may be at the origin of the 2002 SARS epidemic. Virologists around TU Changchun have found that these bats carry coronaviruses with all the genetic elements that were found in the SARS virus strain which in 2002 killed nearly 800 people worldwide. The deadly strain may have been passed on to civet cats sold in markets of Guangdong Province before reaching humans.

China Bio news release, December 7, 2017

The textile contains stretchable sensors which are applied by an electronic dyeing method. With specific precursor selection and texture regulation, the conductive textile shows good flexibility and adaptable strain–electric response. The electronic textile has high durability and can capture and monitor various human activities and distinguish similar motions, which have great potential in biomonitoring, soft co-robotics, and human–machine interaction, https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201700253

CAS news release, December 12, 2017

A pioneer company in this field, Heijing Bioengineering Co. in Shanghai, uses soil sub-section repair methods to set up greenhouses on the restored land, planting more than 10 different kinds of plants such as alfalfa and wheat blueberry, and using different types of Trichoderma fungus stdrains and organic matter repair materials during planting. An official report concluded that after treatment the content of phthalic acid and aniline in the contaminated soil after the technology has dropped dramatically, and the repaired soil meets the Grade II standard of the national soil environmental quality standard. The cost of bioremediation is estimated at about a quarter of that of traditional physical and chemical repair technologies and does not lead to „secondary pollution“.

China Bio news release, December 5, 2017

As a counteraction to some unlawful practices in traditional Chinese medicine, in particular commercials in radio, TV and other media, the Standing Committee of Hebei Province People’s Congress recently passed the Regulations of Chinese Medicine in Hebei Province” clearly stipulating that medical practitioners should not engage in medical and medical activities without medical practitioners’ registration; government departments in charge of Chinese medicine review and approval shall not advertise Chinese medicine without the approval of the drug regulatory authorities of Hebei Province People’s Government. It will come into force on January 1, 2018.”

China Bio news release, December 5, 2017

The „Shenhai Yongshi“ (Deep-Sea Warrior) can dive to 4,500 m and is considered an important stepping stone to China’s 10,000 m manned submersible which is presently under construction and set for explorations in the Mariana Trench in 2020. 95 % of the Shenhai Yongshi is claimed to be „made-in-China“, with a focus on underwater acoustic doppler velocity log and communication systems.

CAS news release, December 5, 2017

According to ZHANG Xueli, Director at the institute, has created 30 cell factories, an average of one every 2 months, for improved production of fine chemicals such as amino acids, rare sugars etc. by metabolic engineering and systems microbiology. Among them are 6 industrial strains of amino acids, e. g., lysine, with independent intellectual property rights which have achieved large-scale application. The laboratory has built a bioplastic monomer cell system, opened up a pathway from renewable biomass materials to succinic acid, D-lactic acid and a series of biodegradable plastic monomer synthesis routes, achieving 10,000-ton succinic acid and D- Lactic acid bio-manufacturing processes. The average age of the team is about 33 years, and researchers under 40 years of age account for 88% of the total number of permanent employees.

China Bio news release, December 4, 2017

Based on an analysis of genetic diversity, transcriptomic comparisons and functional complementarity derived from secondary symbiosis, the group of XU Jian and CAS QIBEBT proposed a mechanistic model of triglyceride biosynthesis in Nannochloropsis oceanica, an oleaginous microalgae. This map provides an opportunity to improve productivity and quality of triglyceride in this algae using metabolic engineering.

CAS news release, December 1, 2017

According to recently published „Guiding Opinions on Implementation oft he 13th Five-year Plan for Renewable Energy Development“ issued by the National Energy Administration, the original plan was nearly doubled and now targets by 2020 up to 23.34 million kilowatts power generation from agriculture and forestry biomass in 31 provinces and autonomous regions. Clean heating with ultra-low emissions is the main direction of use. By the end of 2016, there were 23 provinces and municipalities in China developing a total of 254 agriculture and forestry biomass power generation projects, with a net installed capacity of 6.442 million kilowatts.

China Bio news release, December 1, 2017

Nine pharmaceutical companies such as JW Therapeutics, Fosun Kite, Carsgen Therapeutics, HRAIN Biotechnology, Genor Biopharma and others have officially established the Shanghai Alliance for Immune Cell Therapy Industry. The Shanghai Biomedicine Science and Technology Industry Promotion Center will actively promote the development of a cell therapy industry, increase R&D funding and policy support efforts for CAR-T to benefit more patients as soon as possible. In December 2016, the CFDA released Guiding Principles for Research and Evaluation of Cell Products” (Draft for Comment). At present, the regulatory authorities are revising the guiding principles according to the feedback and are expected to release the implementation within 2017. An acceptable price for therapy in China would be around 100,000 Yuan, well below the prizes presently seen in the USA (400 – 500 k$).”

China Bio news release, December 1, 2017

I-MAB, a Shanghai-based startup has agreed with MorphoSys on the exclusive development and commercialization of MOR202 in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The investigational drug MOR202 is a human HuCAL antibody directed against the CD38 target. Scientifically proven, CD38 is a highly expressed target protein in multiple myeloma. In addition to the treatment of multiple myeloma, studies have found that CD38 antibodies have a therapeutic effect on a variety of solid tumors and autoimmune diseases. MorphoSys is completing Phase 1 / 2a clinical studies of MOR202 in Germany and Austria.

China Bio news release, December 2, 2017

A biomedical engineer by education, Tao XU is presently Director of the Innovation Center of Instruments and Technologies for Life Sciences at CAS Beijing Institute of Life Sciences. His focus is on membrane and vesicle transport. Born in May 1970, he was a postdoc with Erwin Neher at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and with Bertil Hille at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Washington University. In 1999, he returned to Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan where he had studied, and transferred to Beijing in 2009. On Nov. 27, 2017, Tao XU was appointed member of the CAS, together with 66 other scientists and engineers.

China Bio news release, November 30, 2017

On average, there were 4 IPO per month, and nearly 90 % of the companies had VC/PE support. The original investment period of 8-10 years was reduced to about 3-5 years. Total funds raised reached over 200 billion yuan.

China Bio news release, November 30, 2017

Cyanobacteria such as Synechococcus sp. PCC 7942 overproduce sucrose to achieve osmotolerance in saline solution. The teams around Xuefeng LU and Quan LUO at CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), in collaboration with Martin Hagemann at Rostock University, Germany, identified protein Slr1588 as a transcriptional regulator for sucrase activity of the spsA gene, a key enzyme involved in sucrose synthesis and found that glycogen and sucrose pools were closely linked. Their results suggest that glycogen could serve as a supportive rather than a competitive carbon pool for the synthesis of sucrose, and could guide metabolic engineering to optimize the production of sucrose and other products by cyanobacteria.

CAS QIBEBT news release, November 27, 2017

According to a CFDA law amendment brought to congress vote, certification of drugs in China might be simplified in the future: 1. permission for manufacture and GMP certificate will be combined in one certificate, and 2. permission for storage (GSP = good storage practice certificate) and sales will also be combined in another certificate. Thus, if approved by congress, GMP and GSP will in future be combined with manufacturing and sales certificate (information by XIONG Xin)

China Bio news release, November 29, 2017

Using algae such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Nannochloropsis and others, the group of Jian XU at CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioproess Technology (QIBEBT) has succeeded to quantify, label-free, the amount of starch, protein and triacylglycerol in single microalgal cells. Analysis is based on 13 specific Raman peaks. It works under high throughput and from different cell preservation states such as liquid suspension cultures, thawed wet algae preserved at -80 ° C and freeze-dried algal flour.

China Industrial Biotechnology Network, November 23, 2017

Hainan Airlines flight HU497 departed from Beijing Capital Airport on Nov. 21 and landed 11 hrs later at Chicago O’Hare in the USA. It carried 186 passengers and 15 crew members. The biofuel used (Sinopec No. 1 jet fuel) was processed from coconut, palm, Jatropha, linseed and other vegetable oils, as well as from microalgae oil, cooking oil and animal fat, and approved by CAAC. China at present consumes about 30 million tons of aviation fuel and strives to drop the average annual energy consumption per unit passenger by more than 15% by 2020.

China Industrial Biotechnology Network, November 22, 2017

The robot developed by Regenerative Medicine Technology Co. consists of a compact body and a flat panel display. The user first scans the QR code at the top of the display to connect to the enterprise public number, then affixes the right hand to the body, and the robot begins to measure pulse. After 2 minutes, the screen generates a medical report, automatically sent to the user’s mobile phone. 8.6 for organs and 8.4 for digestion …” The report provides scores up to 10 for each of the body’s physiological systems. In a drop-down menu, the medical report also details the user’s health status of each organ, profile, conditioning advice. Even dry eyes and other small problems are “found” by intelligent robots. The robot collects bioelectric data from pulse points, and generates the medical report based on big data analysis based on the clinical data of 280,000 people. Accuracy is said to be 94%. The company will attempt to combine this analysis with the „500 TCM treatments“ of the Chinese pharmacopoeia.”

China Bio news release, November 23, 2017

The genus Allium (Liliaceae) contains hundreds of species, including onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives, many of them have the smell of garlic and are economically important as crops, medicinal or ornamental plants. The majority of over 500 Allium species are native to the Northern Hemisphere, while a few species are distribute in tropical and subtropical regions. The Global Allium Garden will be composed of a Kunming Center and a Tashkent Center. The Kunming Botanical Garden, KIB, covers an area of 3,700 square meters (5.5 acres) and is designed in line with circumstances to create a natural type landscape.

CAS news release, November 23, 2017