On November 20, President YOU Zheng and CHEN Honghui, the chair of Hubei Provincial Health Commission, attended the on-site research symposium sponsored by National Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment of Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (hereinafter referred to as “the Laboratory”) of Tongji Hospital. The symposium was held at the Translational Medicine Building of the Tongji Hospital. Prof. TANG Zhouping, the Party Secretary of Tongji Hospital, and Prof. HU Junbo, the president of Tongji hospital attended the symposium.

At the meeting, Prof. NING Qin, the Director of the Laboratory, gave a presentation about the progress of the Laboratory in the past year, from the perspective of the research teams, platform buildup, research results, construction progress, etc. She especially mentioned the annual meeting of the State Key Laboratory, pointing out that the  suggestions offered by the experts of the Academic Committee and the Strategic Advisory Committee of the State Key Laboratory Annual Meeting on the construction of the laboratory was of great value, and that the academicians and specialists highly spoke of the achievements of the laboratory. She hoped that the Laboratory can focus on the frontiers of critical care treatment of new outbreaks and major zoonotic virulent infectious diseases, aim at the major national needs, achieve theoretical and technological achievements, explore and attain institutional innovations, and build a high-quality experimental platform, thereby making our contributions to the development of the State Key laboratory program.

Upon listening to Prof. NING Qin's report, CHEN Honghui pointed out that the National Key Laboratory for Critical Care Remediation of Zoonotic Infectious Diseases has a good foundation and development potential. CHEN particularly mentioned that medical-industrial cross-cooperation and artificial intelligence will bring key breakthroughs that allow the Laboratory to build a platform of scientific and technological innovations, and they are two major agendas of Hubei Province. The Provincial Health Commission will give full support to the construction and development of the Laboratory.

President YOU Zheng highly spoke of the construction achievements of the Laboratory in the past year, and gave three important directives for the future development of the Laboratory. He emphasized that the Laboratory should be a place for alluring high-end professionals and nurturing talents, to develop a network of high-end talents. The Labortory should be a place for yielding top research results, aimed at publication in top international journals, working out domestic and international guidelines and consensus, and solving practical problems. It should also serves a model of a good research environment, starting from the clinical problems, carrying out basic research to address the problems and finding solutions, and clinically validating the solutions. President YOU specifically pointed out that the Laboratory should take advantage of artificial intelligence to modernize the P3 laboratory, reduce the risk of personnel exposure, and focus on solving the main problems through medical-industrial cross-cooperation.

Since the approval of the construction of the Laboratory, Tongji Hospital has attached great importance to the project, and seen it as an important step forward and an impetus to the high-quality development of the hospital. The hospital has mobilized relevant functional departments involving organization, personnel development, R&D, to facilitate the construction of the Laboratory. As a part of national strategic program, the National Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment of Zoonotic Infectious Diseases will aim high, focusing on the frontiers of global scientific research, meeting the major needs of the country, and addressing issues of people’s life and health.