Biomedical industry is one of the three key industries that Shanghai has been focusing on. In the 14th 5-Year Plan set by the Shanghai municipal government, the city’s biomedical industry output will attain 1.2 trillion RMB by 2025. Zhangjiang area plays an integral role in the development of life science industry in Shanghai. Just in 2020, one out of three Chinese new drugs that were approved to be sold on the market were from Zhangjiang area.
Following those achievements, Zhangjiang Life Science International Innovation Summit was hosted on Oct 12th in Pudong, Shanghai. The summit focuses on the international cooperation for the development of the life science industry, especially on the new technologies, new paradigms, new areas, and new cross industrial trends. The summit aims to foster world-renowned life science industry which will play a guiding role in the world.
The Magistrate of Pudong New Area, Mr. Yingwei Hang, joined officials and organization leaders at the opening session of the summit. Professor Ruhong Zhou, Dean of Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study of Zhejiang University (SIAS), also participated in this summit.
The opening session of the Zhangjiang Life Science International Innovation Summit in Shanghai. (Shanghaifabu)
Following the opening session of the summit, there were two forums focusing on “Artificial Intelligence R&D Innovation” and on “Internalization Trend on Chinese Pharmaceutical Enterprises”. Two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Kaixian Chen and Dr. Zihe Rao, delivered their opening speeches in each of those two forums.
The Zhangjiang AI New Drug R&D Alliance was also inaugurated in the summit, SIAS is one of the 14 founding members of this alliance. Dr. Kevin Chan, PI of the SIAS, attended the establishment ceremony of the alliance.
Dr. Kevin Chan, PI of the SIAS, is at the establishment ceremony of the alliance. (Medicilon)
The next pillar of the summit was an “Application of AI R&D Innovation in the Pharmaceutical industry” roundtable discussion between scholars and industry leaders. Dr. Chunlin Chen, the founder & CEO of Medicilon, moderated the discussion.
Speakers take part in the roundtable discussion. (Medicilon)
Professor Ruhong Zhou participated in the routable discussion. Following a brief introduction of SIAS, Zhou emphasized the importance of the interdisciplinary talents for the AI R&D innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. He stated that Zhejiang University has been an incubator for interdisciplinary talents. He noted that SIAS is working with 5 other top-tier universities in East China and companies such as Baidu and Huawei on the establishment of next generation scientific and educational AI consortium. The new consortium has launched micro interdisciplinary AI subjects for cultivating compound talents.
With an eye to the interdisciplinary cross-integration of AI and pharmaceutical science, Professor Zhou mentioned that there could be huge potential on academic-industry collaboration to accomplish the application goal of AI R&D innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. He emphasized the importance of cultivating interdisciplinary talents on ecosystem construction, advanced technology transformation, vertical, and the advanced algorithms.
Professor Zhou speaks in the roundtable discussion.
Other speakers who made an appearance at the roundtable:
Mr. Yue Sun, Deputy Director of AI Division, Shanghai Municipal Office of Economy and Information Technology; Mr. Taoyuan, Chairman of Zhangjiang Group; Mr. Zhen Gong, CEO of Shanghai Hansen Biomedical Technology; Mr. Feng Ren, CSO of Drug R&D of Insilico Medicine; and Mr. Jian Ma, Co-Founder of XtalPi.
About SIAS
Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study of Zhejiang University (SIAS) is a jointly launched new institution of research and development by Shanghai Municipal Government and Zhejiang University in June, 2020. The platform represents an intersection of technology and economic development, serving as a market leading trail blazer to cultivate a novel community for innovation amongst enterprises.
SIAS is seeking top talents working on the frontiers of computational sciences who can envision and actualize a research program that will bring out new solutions to areas include, but not limited to, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Biology, Computational Engineering and Fintech.