Brief introduction of the center

Cancer is still a great challenge for us. As far as the global population and developed countries are concerned, cancer is the second leading cause of national death. According to the Geneva World Cancer Report (the most comprehensive survey in the world today), about 654.38+009 million people are diagnosed with cancer and 6.7 million patients die every year. In China, according to the report of the Information Center of the Ministry of Health, the incidence of cancer in China has risen to 127 cases/65,438+10,000 people in 1990s. In recent years, the number of new cancer patients has reached 160 ~ 1.7 million, and the total number is estimated to be around 4.5 million. The main cancer types are gastric cancer (2 1.76%), liver cancer (17.83%), lung cancer (15. 19%), esophageal cancer (15.02%) and colorectal cancer (. Due to the aging population in developing and developed countries, the prevalence of smoking and unhealthy lifestyles is increasing, and the incidence of cancer is still rising. It is estimated that by 2020, the global cancer incidence will increase by 50%, and the number of patients will reach150,000.

Cancer is a great threat to human health, and people have been looking for effective treatments to conquer cancer. Anti-cancer research is a challenging and significant field in life science. The occurrence of tumor is an extremely complicated process. In the past, it was divided into two stages: start-up and promotion. Carcinogens and cancer promoters act on these two stages respectively, thus forming tumors. From the genetic analysis, in the process of carcinogenesis, many genes have mutated, unable to perform their duties, leading to cancer. With the advent of the post-genome era, people's understanding of genes and their functions is gradually deepening, and the differences in intracellular signal transduction pathways between tumor cells and normal cells are being recognized. Various basic processes such as intracellular signal transduction, cell cycle regulation, apoptosis induction, angiogenesis and the interaction between cells and extracellular matrix are being gradually clarified, and the pathogenesis of tumors is becoming more and more clear at the molecular level.

With the elucidation of signal transduction pathways such as tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis, cancer treatment with unified therapy in the past has produced many side effects, including physical discomfort, and some even threaten life safety, which is being replaced by targeted drug products that have been quietly listed recently. Targeted therapy aims at killing cancer cells. Targeted anticancer drugs directly target molecular targets, just like targeting, will effectively overcome the inevitable shortcomings of cytotoxic anticancer drugs commonly used in clinic, such as poor selectivity, strong toxic side effects and easy drug resistance. At present, computer virtual screening, combinatorial chemistry and Qualcomm screening have accelerated the research process of new drugs for targeted therapy. At present, anticancer drugs targeting molecular targets mainly include monoclonal antibodies (monoclonal antibodies) targeting tumor cells (antigens or receptors), molecular inhibitors of cell signal transduction, angiogenesis inhibitors, telomerase-targeting inhibitors and tumor drug resistance reversal agents. It is found that new anticancer drugs with high efficiency, low toxicity, strong specificity and selective action on specific targets have become an important direction of anticancer drug research and development. The emergence of targeted drugs has fully proved the great potential of targeting molecules to treat tumors, marking the arrival of a new era of cancer treatment. These drugs have completely changed the way that traditional chemotherapy drugs attack all rapid splinter cell. By treating tumor cells with gene mutation or abnormal gene expression, they have little effect on normal cells. However, due to the limitations of chemotherapy, drug-resistant cells often appear, and the generation of cancer cells with inherent drug resistance is caused by the genetic instability of these cells. This problem will occur in all treatments for cancer cells, so expanding the number of lockable cell pathways may reduce drug resistance and adverse reactions, and increase the number of alternative multi-drug treatment programs.

The treatment of cancer in this way has brought some changes to the market, and this innovative treatment will reverse the situation of cancer medical market in the next decade. According to the recent research of commercial communication companies, the global market for cancer drugs was148.7 billion dollars in 20001year, and it will reach 26.7 billion dollars in 2005, with an average annual growth rate of 12.5%. From 2000 to 2005, it was estimated that there were 134 new drugs for cancer treatment (including innovative drugs, new dosage forms or new ways of using old drugs), which greatly increased the global sales revenue of cancer drugs by 75%. In 2000, the total market value of cancer drugs was $654.38+03.2 billion, of which 90% were existing drugs. In 2005, this market will reach $654.38+08.2 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 6.6%. The treatment of cancer ended on 1990. Great changes have taken place because of the invention of innovative therapy. This innovative therapy includes monoclonal antibody therapy. In a few years, these innovative therapies will be combined with early medical methods such as cytotoxic agents and hormone therapy. Innovative drugs, such as angiogenesis inhibitors, cancer vaccines, gene therapy and new monoclonal antibodies. Coupled with the improvement of existing drugs, the cancer medical market will explode. At present, its market value is estimated to be $6543.8+58 million, with an average annual growth rate of 40.2%. It is estimated that by 2005, its market value will reach 8.6 billion dollars. In other words, in 2005, the global cancer medical market as a whole (that is, the existing drug market and innovative therapeutic drug market) will be twice that of 2000. In China, in just five years, the domestic market for drugs used in cancer hospitals soared from 654.38+3.2 billion yuan in199 to 7.8 billion yuan in 2005, with an average annual growth rate of 20. 1%. In 2005, anti-tumor drugs showed a strong growth trend, and the sales volume increased by 2 1% compared with 2004, showing a strong market power.

The construction of cancer research center will be based on the research of signal transduction of tumor cells. Through the elaboration of signal transduction pathways of tumor cells, more specific molecular targets and pathways will be found, which will provide technical support for the development of new technologies for tumor treatment, prevention and diagnosis.

Scientific research team

Director of the Center: Professor Zhang (doctoral supervisor)

Executive Director of the Center: Professor Zeng

Lecturer: Assistant Professor Wang Guanghui.

Laboratory personnel 1 person.

Students: 2 doctoral students and 6 master students.

Center for Cell and Infectious Diseases

Brief introduction of the center

The outbreak of new epidemics such as SARS and avian flu tells people that apart from war, various infectious diseases are still the enemy of human survival and development, and the struggle against infectious diseases is far from over. Therefore, it should be a very urgent and important task for human beings to vigorously strengthen the research and prevention of infectious diseases.

China is one of the countries with the fastest rising HIV infection rate in the world. It not only rises rapidly, but also spreads widely among young people and farmers in various ways, from high-risk groups to the general population, and begins to enter the peak of morbidity and mortality. According to experts' estimation, the actual number of people infected with AIDS in China has exceeded 1 10,000. If we do not take resolute and effective measures, it will cause unimaginable serious consequences.

Hepatitis B has always been a major health problem in China. The positive rate of hepatitis B virus antibody in the national population is as high as 60%, and the hepatitis B virus carrying rate is about 10%, and the number of carriers is 654.38+300 million, accounting for 1/3 of the world. There are about 800,000 new cases of hepatitis B every year, with hepatitis B patients130,000, and 300,000 people die of liver cancer and cirrhosis every year. For the treatment of hepatitis B, although there are various treatment methods, only a few drugs on the market have various defects. Therefore, increasing the variety of drugs to increase the choice of treatment schemes, especially developing new drugs effective for drug-resistant viruses, has become an urgent task to overcome the problem of hepatitis B, which is of great significance to overcome these infectious diseases.

All the processes of virus invading cells, replicating genomes, assembling and releasing virus particles are closely related to various physiological activities in cells. In-depth study of various physiological mechanisms in cells, especially the regulation mechanism of protein transmembrane transport, is of great significance for understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of infectious diseases caused by pathogenic organisms such as viruses. On the basis of cell biology research, the center will gradually carry out pathological research on infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and other pathogenic organisms and seek new treatment methods.

Research direction: Cellular and molecular mechanisms of the interaction between pathogen invasion and transmembrane transport in protein.

Secretion and endocytosis of protein transport control many cellular physiological processes, such as the secretion of neurotransmitters and growth factors, and regulate signal transduction, tumorigenesis and individual development. Normal physiological functions depend on a particular protein being transported to the right place. Many diseases are related to transport defects in protein, such as lysosomal storage disease, familial hypercholesterolemia, Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome, Chediak-Higashi syndrome, Alzheimer's Harmo syndrome and Parkinson's syndrome. In addition, many pathogenic organisms, such as most viruses, invade cells through various components in the protein transport pathway, mature in cells and cause diseases.

The relationship between protein transport mechanism and human diseases is one of the hot spots in cell biology. The research team led by Professor Hong has been at the forefront of international research in this field, and has published more than 60 high-quality papers in top journals such as Nature and Science.

The Center will continue to apply modern molecular and cell biology techniques to explore the relationship between protein's transportation mechanism and human diseases, reveal the cellular and molecular mechanisms of protein's transportation regulation and control of human diseases, and explore new drug targeting molecules and develop new targeted drugs from the regulatory elements of protein's transportation process. At present, the ongoing research includes: (1) transmembrane transport mechanism in protein; Transport and cancer in protein; Transport and pathogenic mechanism of pathogenic microorganisms in protein; Screening of new targeted drugs.

This study will focus on the mechanism of low molecular weight GTP enzyme Rab protein regulating transmembrane transport in protein, especially how the regulation of intracellular endocytosis by Rab protein affects the invasion of pathogenic organisms. Rab protein can combine GTP or GDP to realize the conversion between activation and inactivation. GTP-bound Rab protein is activated, which can regulate transmembrane transport and various cell activities in protein by interacting with downstream factors. Rab34 is a new Rab protein found by us. Our research shows that Rab34 and Rab7 have the same interaction factor RILP. There is evidence that Rab34, Rab7 and RILP are involved in the formation of phagocytic vesicles mediated by pathogenic organisms (such as Salmonella). We will further study the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which Rab7, Rab34 and RILP regulate the invasion of infectious pathogens, especially bacteria and viruses. And expand the research field to other Rab proteins and other proteins in the endocytosis pathway. In addition, the center also studied the effects of Rab7 and Rab34 on cell growth, migration, survival, signal transduction and tumor development, and discussed the regulatory effects of Rab protein on cell and animal physiology with the help of animal models.

Director of Research Team Center: Professor Hong (doctoral supervisor)

Executive Director of the Center: Professor Wang Tuanlao

Laboratory Technician: Ye Yun Wu Xiaochun

Doctoral student: Zhang Ming

Master students: Chen Li, Xu Xiaoou, Wang Shicong and Ma Zexu.

Undergraduate students: Liang, Hu Jingjie, Tang Shaoyong, Liu Chen.

scientific research

research direction

1. protein transmembrane transport mechanism of animal cells

2. Regulatory mechanism of protein transport and carcinogenesis.

3. Transport, invasion and pathogenesis of pathogenic microorganisms in protein.

4. Screening of new targets and targeted drugs

Metabolic venereal disease center

Brief introduction of the center

In recent decades, metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity have become world health problems. Diabetes has become the fastest growing chronic disease in underdeveloped countries. At least 5% of deaths in the world are related to diabetes, and the cost of diabetes treatment in various countries accounts for 2.5% to 15% of the annual medical budget. At present, there are at least 23.8 million diabetics in China. In some developed countries, the prevalence of obesity is high, while in developing countries, the number of obese people has also risen sharply. Obesity leads to an increase in mortality, but also increases the risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. A recent survey also shows that the number of obese patients in China is also increasing. In the past eight years, the incidence of obesity in preschool children has soared, accounting for 10% of the total number of children. With the increase of age, obese children are still at risk of developing diabetes.

Therefore, in view of this trend, this research center focuses on the molecular mechanism of diabetes and obesity and the development of new drugs. The research center has studied the molecular mechanism of diabetes and obesity for many years, and found many key regulatory genes such as SHP2, GRB2, GAB 1, GAB2, which proved their key regulatory effects on diabetes and obesity at the cellular level and in transgenic animal models. The further research direction of our center is: 1) to clarify the role of these genes in diabetes and obesity in combination with clinic; 2) Using the above genes as therapeutic target genes, screening possible clinical therapeutic drugs. Our center has established a good research technology platform and has a mature experimental technology system of molecular biology, cell biology and transgenic animal disease models, which can provide technical cooperation for studying the molecular mechanism of diseases, verifying the efficacy of new drugs and revealing the mechanism and ways of patented drugs.

Scientific research team

Director of the Center: Professor Feng Gensheng (doctoral supervisor)

Executive Director of the Center: Professor Lu Zhongxian.

Laboratory technician

Students: 2 master students.

Center for neurology and aging

Brief introduction of the center

With the aging of the population and the increase of life expectancy of the world population, the incidence of Alzheimer's disease, one of the three major diseases that threaten the lives of the elderly, has also increased rapidly. Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer's Harmo disease (commonly known as Alzheimer's disease or AD), stroke, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular dementia, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and depression, among which AD accounts for 50%-70%. According to reports, the incidence of AD in people aged 65-80 is about 10%, and it can reach 50% in people over 80 years old. About 6 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. American society spends as much as $654.38+000 billion on Alzheimer's disease (AD) every year. China has entered an aging society, and the population over 60 years old has exceeded 65.438+0.6 billion. Among the elderly over 60 years old, 5%-654.38+0% people suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which means that there may be 654.38+0.000 million people suffering from Alzheimer's disease in China. AD is about to become a serious problem in medicine and society. It is not only of great social significance, but also of great market potential and economic benefits to study the etiology of AD in order to develop effective preventive and therapeutic drugs.

Center research direction: cellular and molecular pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease.

Evidence from genetics, cell/molecular chemistry and biochemistry strongly proves that β -amyloid plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, inhibiting the formation and accumulation of β -amyloid is an important goal in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Our main interest is to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms of β -amyloid protein. At present, the progress and ongoing projects in the laboratory are as follows:

1. This paper mainly discusses the action principle and regulation mechanism of two secretases responsible for producing Aβ, namely β-secretase and γ-secretase. γ -secretase is a multi-molecular complex, which consists of presenilin-1 (PS 1), PEN-2, APH- 1 and nicastin. We proved for the first time that the expression of human PEN-2 gene is regulated by transcription factor CREB. Our findings are helpful to better understand how transcription factors regulate the activities of β -secretase and γ -secretase in cells, and to develop potential drug targets for treating AD.

2.Aβ is produced by the hydrolysis of β amyloid precursor protein. At the same time, an intracellular peptide, APP intracellular domain (AICD), was also produced during the hydrolysis. It has been proved that AICD, like NICD, acts as a transcription factor to regulate the expression of several genes. We found and confirmed the interaction between AICD and several protein. Now, we are clarifying the effects of these proteins on APP processing and apoptosis in signal transduction pathway.

3. The shearing of β -secretase and γ -secretase is selective, so other protein must interact with them to regulate their functions. We are screening protein interacting with PS 1, nicastrin, PEN-2 and BACE 1.

4. Chinese horseshoe crab peptide is a polypeptide with multiple biological activities, which has antibacterial, antiviral and antitumor effects. We are studying the effects of Chinese horseshoe crab peptide on the survival/death of nerve cells and the processing of APP/Aβ.

Note: Recently, two papers on the regulation of gene expression of PEN-2 and APH- 1 by Dr. Wang Ruishan, the first author of our laboratory, were published in the journals of Mol Cell Biol (impact factor 7.822) and FASEB J (impact factor 7.064) respectively. Zhang Han as the first author's paper "Regulation of presenilin on tumor suppressor PTEN level" has been accepted and published by Neurobiology of Aging (impact factor 5.506). With Zhang Xian, a doctoral student of grade 06 as the first author, the paper "Cerebral ischemia and ischemia-inducing factor HIF- 1 can bind with BACE 1 promoter to regulate the activity of β-secretase, thus affecting the production of Aβ" was published in the journal J Biol Chem (impact factor 6.355). Recent studies have found that the intracellular fragment AICD produced by PS/- secretase closely related to AD can bind to the promoter of EGFR gene and negatively regulate the expression of EGFR. Because the overexpression of EGFR will lead to cancer or make tumors resistant to drugs, this result reveals the internal relationship between AD and cancer. This article was published in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (impact factor 10.23 1), which caused great repercussions at home and abroad, and was published by major news media (such as Newswise, ScienceDaily, Scienceblog, united press international, Xinhuanet, People's Daily, ScienceNet and other websites, Guangming Daily, Xiamen Daily and other newspapers, as well as china national radio and Xiamen TV stations).

The main sources of funding for the laboratory:

Xiamen University 2 1 1 Start-up capital for talent introduction: 3 million yuan.

Start-up fund of Xiamen University Biomedical Research Institute

Feasibility study on Xiamen horseshoe crab special reserve. From February 2004 to February 2005, 65438+February. Funding: 6,543,800 yuan+8,000 yuan Source: Xiamen Marine Fisheries Bureau.

Artificial seedling raising, releasing technology and protective measures of horseshoe crab. Funding: 6,543,800 yuan+8,000 yuan Source: Xiamen Marine Fisheries Bureau.

Study on the regulatory function of presenilin (PS 1) in vesicle synthesis and operation. Funding: 250,000 yuan Source: National Natural Science Foundation Project.

Selective transcriptional regulation of β -secretase and g- secretase components. Funding amount: 3 1 0,000 Yuan Source: National Natural Science Foundation Project.

Scientific research team

Director of the Center: Professor Xu Huaxi (doctoral supervisor)

Executive Director of the Center: Professor Zhang Yunwu and Professor Hongshuigen.

Students: All students of the Research Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Aging.

Translational medicine center

Brief introduction of the center

2 1 century is the century of life science. With the completion of the human genome project, the research focus of life science has shifted from basic biology research to biomedicine with the focus on human health research. Biomedicine is an interdependent subject between basic theoretical research and clinical application. Biomedicine studies the genetic basis, molecular mechanism, prevention and treatment of human diseases, and realizes individualized treatment of patients with drugs, thus ensuring people's health and promoting social development. For a long time, due to the limitation of traditional concepts and subject system, biological research and medical research have been obviously separated, and the communication between laboratory researchers and clinical medical staff is not smooth, which leads to the serious decoupling between basic theoretical research and clinical application, and the serious disconnection between scientific research direction and research projects and clinical and social needs. This situation not only causes a great waste of social resources, but also can not adapt to the development of biomedicine in which basic theoretical research and clinical application are interdependent.

Translational medicine is an important part of modern biomedical research. Translational medicine is committed to the medical application of laboratory research results, which quickly transforms laboratory discoveries and inventions into urgently needed clinical diagnosis and treatment technologies and products, bridges the laboratory and clinic, and fills the gap between basic theoretical research and practical application. With the aim of serving human health, our center will make use of our experience in drug research and development and solid molecular diagnosis research foundation, integrate the latest progress in bioinformatics, molecular genetics, modern medical chemistry and other research fields, and strive to achieve the following goals in view of clinical and social needs:

1) Establish a platform for drug screening and evaluation centered on biochemical tests, cell tests and animal models, as well as a platform for pre-clinical efficacy, pharmacology, metabolism, distribution, toxicity and pathology evaluation. Based on the molecular mechanism, a new generation of targeted therapeutic drugs is developed to meet the clinical and market needs.

2) Develop a new generation of molecular diagnosis technology with high sensitivity, strong repeatability, short time, simple use and low cost. Combined with the marker molecules of diseases, early diagnosis, timely prevention, early intervention, accurate medication, treatment effect identification and prognosis of common genetic diseases, acute infectious diseases, malignant tumors and other diseases can be realized, so as to realize individualized medication treatment for patients.

3) Using this R&D platform, we will cultivate a group of compound talents who can not only engage in scientific research, but also be familiar with clinical application, market and enterprise operation, and are in urgent need of innovation and entrepreneurship, enterprise management and medical laws and regulations, so as to promote the sustainable development of local economy.

Scientific research team

Director of the Center: Professor Zheng Limou (doctoral supervisor)

Adjunct Professor: Professor Cai Zongwu (Biostatistics)

1 laboratory technicians

Students: 4 master students.

Natural products center

Brief introduction of the center

The development of biomedical industry depends on the research and development of innovative drugs with independent intellectual property rights. The development practice of global pharmaceutical industry has proved that natural drugs have always been an important source of innovative drug research. In China, it is a shortcut to find active lead compounds from traditional Chinese medicines with thousands of years of clinical practice experience and carry out independent innovation drug research in combination with national conditions.

It may be the most effective way to accelerate the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and promote the research of independent innovative drugs by making full use of modern scientific and technological methods and pharmaceutical means, fully developing the unique and rich resources of traditional Chinese medicine and natural medicine in China, and establishing a database of fractions separated from traditional Chinese medicine and natural medicine by using the newly developed fast and efficient preparation technology of natural products. Combined with the quantitative activity screening system of Qualcomm, the active natural substances with development prospect and potential market value were searched for, and then in-depth, extensive and systematic research was carried out. The rich experience accumulated by Chinese medicine in thousands of years of clinical practice will provide important enlightenment for selecting active screening system, reducing blindness and workload of screening and improving the efficiency and success rate of drug screening. It is a basic requirement to build a fast, efficient and orderly platform for the separation of Chinese herbal medicines.

The center will combine modern biotechnology, medical theory and drug research and development technology to find effective natural drug components, clarify their structure-activity relationship, and modify and optimize their chemical structure. Focus on the use of China's rich Chinese herbal medicine resources and Xiamen's unique marine natural medicine resources, study natural products with anti-major disease activity, build a natural medicine effective component resource database, combine the basic research results of other centers, explore effective components with targeted efficacy, and form pharmaceutical products with independent intellectual property rights through pharmacological research and clinical trials.

Person in charge: Professor Zhang, doctoral supervisor (agent)

The center has signed a cooperation agreement with the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Medicine of Jinan University, and the two institutes will jointly build and devote themselves to the research and development of Chinese herbal medicine resources. The Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Medicine of Jinan University has an excellent team of experts and scholars who have been engaged in the chemistry and pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine for a long time, headed by Academician Yao Xinsheng, and its members include professors Ye, Li Yuanhong and Li. Not only has many years of pharmacological research experience, but also has done a lot of fruitful work in establishing the sample library of separated fractions of traditional Chinese medicine and natural medicine, and has been tirelessly exploring the standardization and standardization of traditional Chinese medicine. The cooperation between the center and the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Medicine of Jinan University will form strong complementarity in medicinal chemistry research, and promote the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and the research and development of new drugs with independent intellectual property rights.

Scientific research team

Director of the Center: Professor Zhang, doctoral supervisor (agent)

Deputy Director: Academician Yao Xinsheng (part-time)

Teacher: Professor Ye (part-time)

Associate Professor Chen Haifeng.

2 laboratory technicians

2 master students