In the field of life science and biotechnology, about 6,000 CAS research professionals are now attached to 24 research institutes, 13 research centers, 26 key State laboratories and key CAS laboratories, 12 botanical gardens, 18 specimen museums, and nine repositories for type culture collection, as well as a dozen field observation and experimental stations for ecological studies.
There are six institutes in Beijing mainly focusing on hi-tech research in agricultural and environmental biology, five institutes in Shanghai (the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Science, mainly focusing on biomedical sciences related to human health), four institutes in Southwest China for studies of bio-resources and bio-diversity conservation, three institutes in Hubei Province for studies of aquatic biology and virology, and two institutes in Qinghai and Guangdong Provinces for studies of plateau biology and botany, respectively.
The aims of CAS' life science and biotechnology endeavors are to support the key potential in agriculture, the environment and human health. Research fields include molecular biology, cell biology, neuroscience, development biology, genetics, genomics, proteomics, virology, bioinformatics, psychology, ecology, biosystematics, phytochemistry, biodiversity and agrobiology.
Major achievements scored by CAS biologists include the syntheses of bovine insulin and yeast alanine transfer ribonucleic acid for the first time in the world, the physical mapping of the rice (Oryza japonica) genome, the draft sequence of the rice (O. indica) genome and the decoding of rice chromosome 4 (both O. japonica and O. indica). CAS scientists have also completed China's assignment for the genome-sequencing task allocated by the HGP consortium.
In addition, CAS scientists have made significant accomplishments in the fields of taxonomy, evolutionary biology, biodiversity, agrobiology and environmental biology, including the compilation of the 255-volume corpus of Flora Sinica, Fauna Sinica and Cryptogamica Sinica, and have set up a complete taxonomic system for Chinese pteridophytes. Research in such areas as locust and grasshopper ecology and integrated management, the ecological effects of invasive alien species, restoration ecology, sustainable use of bioresources, integrated pest management, croup breeding and designing, key marine aquaculture technologies (southward transplant of kelp, scallop implant and all-course artificial breeding of Chinese prawns), the establishment of a breeding system for inter-species hybridization in Gosspium, making substantial contributions to agricultural development and environmental conservation in China.
CAS was the first organization in the country to carry out such biotechnology research as that relating to monoclonal antibodies, transgenic animals and plants, somatic cell cloning, and stem cell and protein engineering, and has made important research and development findings, including the technology of microbial fermentation for producing Vitamin C, the improvement and industrial application of enzyme activity of Ast. Niger glucoamylase, the development of recombite DNA vaccine of Hepatitis-B, and the super-high expression of human interferon in genetic engineering transgenic fish and somatic cell cloned cows. Moreover, more than 50 new drugs have been developed. Succimer (dimercaptosuccinic acid), one of the best antidotes to heavy metal poisoning, is the first drug developed in China and produced by U.S. pharmaceutical firms with the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Artemether, an anti-malaria medicine, is the only drug initiated by China for export, and was listed in the world pharmacopoeia in 1995. Meanwhile, the annual revenue from the new cardiovascular drug Di'ao Xinxuekang has reached 1.4 billion yuan.
CAS Institutes of Life Sciences and Biotechnology |
