Briefings for the State Key Laboratory

The State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine (Macau University of Science and Technology) was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and formally established on January 25, 2011，which is in China the first state key laboratory in the field of Chinese medicine. In 2023, it passed the fourth stage acceptance with unanimous approval from the expert group. The same year, the fifth stage construction was launched.

The establishment of the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine is an important initiation for the central government to promote the international development of Chinese medicine, and to advance the moderate diversification of economic development and technological upgrading in Macao. The laboratory aims to become a research base with advanced international level in Chinese medicine quality control and innovative drugs, to obtain first-hand innovation research achievements and independent intellectual property ownerships, to bring together and cultivate talents in Chinese medicine and to develop international high-level academic exchanges and cooperation, to focus on integrating cutting-edge multidisciplinary technologies,  to establish open style scientific and technological platforms catered for the study on quality of Chinese medicine and innovative drugs quality research, to carry out in-depth explorative, innovative and major key technological research.

There are more than 300 researchers and postgraduates in the laboratory, of whom 45 hold the positions as Assistant Professors or above, including Nobel laureates, academicians of the American Academy of Sciences, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chair Professors, Professors, Distinguished Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors and so on. Researchers who hold the positions as assistant professors or above are from well-known teaching and research institutions worldwide and they are fluent English and Chinese bilinguals who possess prolific research experiences and international perspectives, forming a multi-disciplined, well-structured, and strong research team that integrates talents from a variety of related fields such as chemistry, biology and pharmacology.

The Key Laboratory is oriented towards the treatment of major diseases with traditional Chinese medicine, focusing on improving the quality control of Chinese medicine, translational research, and the development of innovative drugs. It further consolidates the research direction and areas, emphasizes the characteristics and connotations of traditional Chinese medicine, conducts key research on certain diseases, and focuses on exploring the biological laws of the effects of traditional Chinese medicine based on Chinese medicine theory and clinical phenomena. It integrates cutting-edge technologies from related disciplines, emphasizes research on key medicinal materials and compound formulations, innovative methods and standards for studying the quality of Chinese medicine, and strengthens translational research. Over the next three years, the laboratory will focus on four key areas and four main research projects: research on innovative technologies and theoretical foundations for quality control of Chinese medicine based on the "three characteristics" of Chinese medicine; research on the quality evaluation and development of valuable medicinal materials such as ginseng; precise diagnosis and innovative drug development for rheumatic and neurodegenerative diseases; research on innovative diagnostic techniques and methods for cancer diagnosis and drug development. The four main research projects include research on innovative technologies and theoretical foundations for quality control of Chinese medicine, research on the application of Chinese medicine in precision medicine, research on the mechanism of action of innovative drugs and new drug development, and research on strategies and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response to the laboratory's development goals and major research areas, the laboratory currently consists of 13 research laboratories and research centers: Laboratory for Quality Assessment and Control of Chinese Medicines, Laboratory for Bioorganic and Chinese Materia Medica Chemistry, Laboratory for Bioassay and Molecular Pharmacology of Chinese Medicines, Laboratory for New Formulation Technology of Chinese Medicinal Preparations, Center for Omics Technology and Innovative Drug Research, Macau Center For MS and NMR Analysis, Center for Safety and Quality Assurance of Chinese Medicines and Foods, Laboratory of Structural Biology and AI-based Drug Design, Laboratory of Animal Models in Translational Medicine, Laboratory of Ion Channel Biophysics and Innovative Drug Discovery, Macao Centre for Innovative Chinese Medicine and Industrialization Technology, Macau Centre for International Standard of Chinese Medicines. “Dr. Neher’s Biophysics Laboratory for Innovative Drug Discovery” a Nobel laureate workstation has also been established.

The laboratory is equipped with a series of advanced, sophisticated, high-end laboratory instruments and processing systems, including all types of liquid/mass spectrometry and gas/mass spectrometers, and a series of the most advanced chemical analysis and systems biology techniques and research equipment required for the evaluation of the overall animal-cell-molecule drug biological activity, such as Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (TOF SIMS), Bruker NMR AV600HD, Bruker Autoflex Speed MALDI TOF/TOF MS, Agilent 1290 UHPLC-Bruker maXis Impact QTOF MS, Agilent 1290 Infinity UHPLC with Triple Quadrupole MS System (6460, 6490 and 6495 Triple Quad LC/MS), Agilent 1290 Infinity UHPLC with TOF MS System (6230 TOF LC/MS), Agilent 1290 Infinity UHPLCQTOF MS System (6550 iFunnel Q-TOF LC/MS, 6545 Q-TOF LC/MS),  Agilent 7900 ICPMS System, JASCO J-1500 High Performance CD Spectrometer, PacBio Third Generation Sequencer, Bruker In-vivo Xtreme Imaging System & SkyScan1176 In-vivo Micro-CT, Fluidigm Helios CyTOF System, Patch Clamp System, Computer-aided Drug Design forLarge-scale Computer Clusters, FLIPR Tetra High-Throughput Cellular Screening System, Octet Red96 System, BD FACSAriaIII Flow Cytometer, In Cell Analyzer 6000 Imaging System, Leica TCS SP8 Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope, High-resolution Light-sheet Microscope, DeltaVision Live-Cell Imaging System, etc.

At present, the high-tech platforms provided by the laboratory are: Isolation and structure elucidation of natural compounds technology, Traditional Chinese medicine genes barcode identification technology, Subcellular and molecular microscopic visualization technology, Bioorganic chemistry technology, Glycomic/Glycopeptidomics analysis technology, Lipidomics analysis technology, Proteomics analysis technology, Stem cells analysis technology, Chinese medicine nano preparations technology, Microfluidic chip casting and research, Single cell research, Nanomaterial-based targeted delivery technology for anti-tumor drugs, Drug screening & design and pharmaceutical data analysis, Chinese medicine ingredients intracellular pharmacokinetics research techniques.

In recent years, the State Key Laboratory has been actively conducting exchanges and cooperation events, and has established joint laboratories or research centers with 17 well-known teaching and research institutions, regularly co organizing academic conferences and seminars with the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund and “Cross-Strait Scientific Collaboration Center for Chinese Medicine”. The laboratory is also committed in promoting the international standardization of Chinese medicine and expanding the development of high-technological services with the founding of “Macau Centre for International Standard of Chinese Medicines”, It promotes the establishment of international standards for Chinese medicine, and has been responsible for the operation of the Chinese Herbal Medicine Working Group (WG1) of the Chinese Medicine Technical Committee (TC249) within the International Standard Organization (ISO); The laboratory has obtained Australian NATA/ISO17025 certification, which can provide testing services in Chinese medicine and food products that conform to international ISO standards for scientific research institutions and enterprises across the cross strait.

The laboratory has made some important scientific discoveries within these key areas, including: New technologies and methods for evaluating the quality of Chinese medicine; Research on the material basis of Chinese medicine efficacy; New disease mechanisms and targets for activity; Use of nano-carriers to enhance the delivery and targeting of active components in Chinese medicine; Research on Chinese medicine against COVID-19. Related research results have been published in mainstream academic journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Methods, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Analytical Chemistry, Organic Letters, Cell Death and Disease etc. The laboratory had received multiple academic awards which include including second and third prizes for Natural Science Awards at the 2020 Macau Science and Technology Awards, second prize for Science and Technology Progress Award at the 2020 Macau Science and Technology Awards, second prize for Natural Science Awards at the 2022 Macau Science and Technology Awards, first prize for Guangdong Province Science and Technology Awards in 2021, Certificate of Scientific and Technological Achievements of Jiangxi Province in 2021, first prize for Medical Science and Technology Awards of Guangdong Province in 2023, Third Prize of Excellent Scientific Research Achievements by Female Scientists awarded by the Chinese Biophysics Society in 2023, Second Prize of Yunnan Health Technology Achievement Award in 2023, and Third Prize of Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award in 2023.

Specific research directions of SKL include: Discovery of new pharmacological effects of TCM, anti-influenza studies on components in Chinese herbal medicines, multi-target treatment mechanism on diabetes and anti-inflammatory diseases, and development of innovative research methods based on complex characteristics of TCM through the new perspectives of efflux transporter, mitochondrial division and interaction with intestinal microflora; Combinational quality assessment methods based on pharmacodynamics-pharmacokinetics-mass spectrometry, pharmacological effects of ginsenosides on intestinal microflora and prevention of ischemic heart disease, anti-cancer effects and mechanisms of novel ginsenosides, quality control evaluation of ginseng and other valuable herbal medicines with omics technology. The discovery of new diagnostic markers and applied research in autoimmune diseases by new techniques such as glycomics and lipidomics, screening of small molecules with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory activities by molecular computational docking, new mechanism of anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory therapy, new animal models in anti-inflammatory immunity and research methods based on omics technology. Discovering active components from traditional Chinese medicines for brain degeneration, synthesizing anti-neuro-degenerative active small molecular compounds, investigation of effect of pathogenic mutation of prion on its folding and aggregation mechanism, the binding site of TCM small molecules in islet amyloid protein; and biophysical research in Chinese medicine.