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Recently, the list of selected vice presidents of science and technology in Jiangsu Province for 2025 was announced. Dr. Chen Huhui, an associate professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, was included and reached a cooperation intention with Nanjing Baoshengyuan Food Co., LTD., an enterprise in the Agricultural High-tech Zone. This botany doctor who graduated from Sun Yat-sen University has been working on the scientific research path for more than ten years. In 2020, he joined Nanjing Agricultural University as a high-level introduced talent.
Dr. Chen Huhui’s main research direction is the mechanism and application of ectomycorrhizal formation between plants and edible and medicinal fungi. When talking about the process of his connection with enterprises in the Agricultural High-tech Zone, Dr. Chen Huhui said, “Dr. Li Deming, the founder of Baoshengyuan, is an alumnus of Nanjing Agricultural University and has maintained close contact with the university for many years.” The applied fungi team he is in has already collaborated with the enterprise in the development of blueberry products. Based on this foundation, both sides successfully applied for the “Vice President of Science and Technology” project. Through multiple in-depth exchanges, Chen Huhui learned that Baoshengyuan is eager to make full use of the fruit residue produced during the production process of blueberry products, extract the effective components from it, and develop new products. For this reason, he led his team to start working on the extraction technology of blueberry anthocyanins and analyzed the protective effect of blueberry anthocyanins on cells through various animal models, scientifically evaluating the health benefits of the product. The extracted anthocyanins are prone to oxidation when stored at room temperature, thereby reducing their protective effect. Therefore, the stable preservation of anthocyanins is also an urgent problem to be solved. Chen Huhui pointed out the key difficulties in technological breakthroughs.
Chen Huhui has a clear understanding of the responsibilities of the role of “Vice President of Technology” : “The main responsibility lies in connecting enterprises and research institutes. On the one hand, it involves delving into the production practices of enterprises, understanding their demands, and collecting technical bottlenecks.” On the other hand, with problems in mind, fully leverage the advantages of the scientific research team in basic research and technological development to help enterprises overcome difficulties and enhance their R&D capabilities.” During his two-year term, he has set clear goals: to apply for 1-2 patents and collaborate on the development of 2-3 new products. After moving into the enterprise, Dr. Chen Huhui focused his first key project on the comprehensive utilization of blueberry by-products. Using the blueberry residue and wine residue produced in the enterprise’s production process as materials, develop new blueberry anthocyanin extraction technology and optimize the extraction conditions. At present, two postgraduate students have been arranged to start exploring the development and optimization of the extraction technology for blueberry residue in enterprises, and initial results have been obtained. Chen Huhui stated that in the future, they will continue to leverage the advantages of Nanjing Agricultural University, such as its complete research platforms and concentrated scientific and technological talents, to improve the technology and strive to develop 2-3 new products with anthocyanins as the main component, thereby enhancing the company’s market competitiveness.
Through this cooperation, both sides plan to jointly apply for patents, laying a solid foundation for future research project applications. In Dr. Chen’s view, the collaboration between schools and enterprises is truly the unity of knowledge and action: “It enables me to promptly grasp the real demands, adjust the research content, and produce ‘more useful’ research results.” This model of deep integration of industry, academia and research not only brings technological innovation and product upgrading to enterprises, but also provides valuable research directions and practical platforms for university researchers. It also demonstrates the positive achievements of Baima Agricultural High-tech Zone in promoting the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industry. With the in-depth advancement of the vice president of science and technology project, it is bound to inject new technological impetus into the high-quality development of the Agricultural High-tech Zone.
