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At No. 4, Xinghuo Road, a group of 11 high-rise buildings stands out particularly. This is the location of the National University Biomedical Regional Technology Transfer and Transformation Center (Nanjing, Jiangsu). Buildings 4, 5, 6 and 7 here are also important research and office carriers for the teachers and students of Southeast University and China Pharmaceutical University to move into the new district this time.
Entering the building, the interior is spacious and bright. The core functional areas such as the central laboratory, cell room, and experimental animal room are rationally laid out, providing a high-standard research environment for teachers and students.
At present, some teachers and students from Dongda University have already started teaching and research here. A relevant staff member of the Medicine Valley said. It is understood that seven secondary medical-related units of Southeast University, including the School of Medicine, School of Public Health, School of Life Science and Technology, and Institute of Organ-on-a-Chip, have fully moved into the new district. More than 1,500 teachers and students will settle down here to study and work.
China Pharmaceutical University has brought four new colleges: the College of Biomedical Excellence Engineers, the College of Modern Pharmaceutical Industry, the College of Biopharmaceuticals, and the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Intelligent Pharmacy. In October, the first batch of students will enter the Engineer Technology Center for practical training. Meanwhile, nearly 30 research achievements of the Department of Pharmacy of the university will be implemented in the new district.
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A number of colleges have moved in and a group of teachers and students have come. What will Dongda University and China Pharmaceutical University do in the new district next?
In the responses of the relevant responsible persons from the two universities, the new model of running schools that deeply integrates “learning, research, production and application” was written in the first line of the answers.
We position the Jiangbei Innovation Center as an important carrier for the “organized transformation of scientific research achievements and organized talent cultivation” at the “industrialization application end of innovative drugs of China Pharmaceutical University”. Yang Yong, a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and vice president of China Pharmaceutical University, introduced.
He said that in the past, the school’s talent cultivation mainly relied on the internal platform, which was prone to being disconnected from the industry. As the main carrier of the life and health industry in the new district, the Biomedical Valley has gathered over 1,300 upstream and downstream enterprises. This is precisely the soil that Pharmaceutical University needs most – the ability to integrate with the industry. In the future, the school will join hands with enterprises to explore a joint training model, taking the technological breakthroughs and product development of enterprises as the research topics for students. Let students study real problems and truly study problems. Yang Yong said.
Not only talent cultivation, but also the transformation of scientific research achievements is a focus of attention for the two universities.
Our medical college already has a team related to nucleic acid drugs working in the new district. Yao Honghong, the Party Secretary and Dean of the School of Medicine at Southeast University, introduced that in the past, the transformation of research achievements by the teachers of the school mainly relied on the university’s research achievement transformation center. The stage in the new district will be broader. Teachers can connect more conveniently and transform more quickly. The later company registration and research and development operation can also explore new models. She said.
Integrate talent cultivation into industrial development and build laboratories along the industrial chain. When the innovation chain, industrial chain and talent chain between the new district and universities are deeply integrated, the settlement of the two universities is not merely an extension of the physical space, but also an innovation in the development model.
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The settlement of two universities in the new district has also brought about more innovative collisions.
For instance, Southeast University and China Pharmaceutical University have not only become physical “neighbors” in the new district, but also good friends moving forward hand in hand. The Jiangbei Innovation and Transformation Center for Medical and Life Sciences of Southeast University and the Jiangbei Innovation Center of China Pharmaceutical University signed an agreement. The two sides will further build a bridge of cooperation and jointly promote the development of the biopharmaceutical industry.
“For a long time, most drugs have focused on cutting-edge biotechnology fields, including gene and cell therapy, antibody drugs, etc.” ” Yang Yong stated that in the future, they plan to collaborate with Dongda University, which has strong engineering capabilities, to develop brand-new drug and medical device combinations and explore new paths for the application of artificial intelligence technology in biomedical research and development.
For instance, the Nanjing Biomedical Branch Center has appointed 12 experts and scholars from Dongda University and China Pharmaceutical University as expert advisors. The two universities have also appointed 13 entrepreneurs from the new district as advisors for industrial innovation and transformation and part-time professors in the industrial field. Among these 13 entrepreneurs, there is Leng Derong, the director and president of Nanwei Medical, and Wu Yong, the deputy general manager of the Innovative Drug Research and Development center of Weikier Pharmaceutical… Most of them come from the alumni enterprises of the “Dongda System” and the “Pharmaceutical University System”, and their research fields are similar to the school’s advantageous disciplines. Such “mutual employment of talents” is also a new direction for the in-depth integration of “learning, research, production and application”.
Sparks collide and advantages complement each other. Besides the cooperation between schools and localities, there is also cooperation between schools and between schools and enterprises. Such a “powerful alliance” brings about more efficient transformation, closer cooperation, and more projects, and also injects a continuous stream of innovative impetus into the regional industrial development.
It is worth mentioning that not far from Southeast University and China Pharmaceutical University, the chemical, biological and pharmaceutical discipline cluster of Nanjing University is also ready to take off. Under Longwang Mountain, the “strongest array” of the life and health industry has been further gathered, and a broader industrial framework has also been opened up. This open hub will drive more cutting-edge basic research towards application, bring forth more industrial talents, and offer many new possibilities, all of which are worth looking forward to.
