Transformations of China (2): Biotechnology Education & Research

Dr. C. C. Lin

Biotechnology Consultant

26 July 2010

After the tragic political turmoil years of the “Cultural Revolution” in mainland China and since the new opening to the rest of the world, China’s higher education system was rapidly reestablished.

I first visited the predecessor of the current Jiangnan University (江南大學) then known as Wuxi Institute of Light Industry (無錫輕工業學院) one of the leading academic institutions for biotechnology education and research in China in 1985. In its old campus at Wuxi, most buildings look rather old and many of the biotechnology equipment were domestically-made and outdated. The teachers were mostly in their 60s with a big age difference between them and their students. I presented my first biotechnology seminar there mostly in mandarin Chinese with the technical terms in English. It was apparent that the students at that time did not have good command of the English language. I was quite impressed by the students’ eagerness to learn with their very meaningful questions thereafter. In fact, I have never seen students demonstrated as much eagerness to learn at other academic institutions outside of mainland China I have been to or visited then. I understand that mainland China just restarted the formal academic education system after so many tragic years at the frozen state as a result of years of political turmoil which practically turned the country backward. My seminar was supposed to last 45 minutes but it actually ended in one and a half hours due to many constructive interactions. It was the most enjoyable seminar experience I ever had as a presenter. It was apparent to me that they just got some rather limited exposure to modern biotechnology and was trying very hard to catch up. At that time, the Wuxi Institute of Light Industry only offers up to the Master degree level in Biotechnology and little significant research work was undertaken. Some of the Master degree graduates I interacted with at my seminar later stay there and subsequently became teachers at the Institute as well as my long time collaborators in my specialized field of biotechnology research and development at Jiangnan University. I visited the school every year since then and continued to interact with their teachers and students in biotechnology.

Five years later, in 1990 some new air conditioned laboratory buildings were constructed and equipped with some imported analytical instruments necessary for research. The number of Master degree graduate students engaged in biotechnology research increased significantly. Some of their research works were published in Chinese in the scientific journal of the Wuxi Institute of Light Industry but few papers were written in English for the international biotechnology journals at that time. As one of the objectives of the Wuxi Institute of Light Industry is to help China establish and develop their own independent biotechnology industry, their teachers were instrumental in the startup and subsequent development of many biotechnology companies in China. Since then, I joined their team of teachers to visit many emerging biotechnology companies all over China.

In 1995, the Wuxi Institute of Light Industry was dramatically expanded and renamed the Wuxi University of Light Industry (無錫輕工大學) which is China’s key university supported by the central government (Ministry of Education [教育部] since 1998). Funding to the university increased significantly leading to faster growth and substantial improvement in the infrastructure, teaching and research facilities of the university. The teaching and research on various fields of modern biotechnology were established. The Ph.D. degree program in biotechnology was instituted.

The Wuxi University of Light Industry, Jiangnan College (江南學院) and? Wuxi College of Education (無錫教育學院) merged as Jiangnan University which is a major comprehensive university in China with the approval of the Ministry of Education in 2001.? Subsequently, a large new centralized beautiful campus was constructed by the scenic Tai Hu Lake(太湖). The School of Biotechnology was also established with the modern scientific equipment and analytical instrumentation.?

Today, the professors at the School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University have made numerous major contributions to the establishment of modern biotechnology companies all over China and setup high quality production facilities. They also published many major research papers in leading international biotechnology journals and participated in biotechnology conferences all over the world. Many of their graduates are working in the growing modern biotechnology industry in China. Quite a number of them are managing the biotechnology companies.

There are at least two major world class achievements in biotechnology in modern China:

The first protein (insulin [胰島素]) with biological activity ever synthesized totally by chemical method in the world was accomplished by a large team of more than 40 Chinese scientists from Institute of Biochemistry and Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (中國科學院上海生物化學研究所, 上海有機化學研究所) both in Shanghai as well as the Chemistry Department of Peking University working under very difficult conditions in 1965 led by Dr. Wang Ying-Lai (王應睞 [1907-2001]). Comparable works on other proteins subsequently undertaken by western scientists at later time were awarded the Nobel prizes in Chemistry.
Yuan Long-Ping (袁隆平) developed the first “Hybrid Rice” varieties in China in the 1970s. His “hybrid rice” species increases rice cultivation yield from 300 kg/mu (畝) to more than 800 kg/mu. To date, Yuan Long-Ping’s hybrid rice species are grown in 60% of China’s rice fields. Worldwide, 20% of the rice fields are using “Hybrid Rice” species developed with Yuan’s methodology.

-- To Be Continued --