On June 11th, 2021, the conference of Hubei Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry and Resource Evaluation was successfully held in School of Pharmacy, Tongji Medical College. Professor Chen Jianguo, Vice President of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Party committee secretary and Dean of the Tongji Medical College, attended the conference. Several top experts have been invited to attend the conference, including Professors Sun Handong and Yue Jianmin, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Professor Kong Lingyi from China Pharmaceutical University; Professor Tan Renxiang from Nanjing University; Professor Huang Shishan from Institue of Materia Medica Chinese Academy of Medical Science; Professor Lou Hongxiang from Shandong University; Professor Liu Jikai from Central South University for Nationalities; Professor Guo De'an from Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica; and Professor Puno Pema-Tenzin from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Besides, Zhou Zhenghang (Party committee secretary of School of Pharmacy), Huang Rui (Deputy Dean of School of Pharmacy), and members of the Hubei Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry and Resource Evaluation attended the conference. The conference was hosted by Zhang Yonghui, director of the Hubei Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry and Resource Evaluation, Dean of School of Pharmacy, HUST.

At the beginning of the meeting, Chen Jianguo expressed his gratitude to these universities and organizations for their strong support for the construction and development of key laboratory. After that, he briefly introduced the basic situation of Tongji Medical College and School of Pharmacy. Finally, he hoped that the key laboratory could give full play to their advantages, make up for their shortcomings, make persistent efforts and strive for new breakthroughs under the support and guidance of these experts attending the meeting.

Later, Zhang Yonghui, director of the Hubei Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry and Resource Evaluation, Dean of School of Pharmacy, HUST, made a detailed report on the work of key laboratory in recent years. He first introduced the members of the academic committee and laboratory members of the key laboratory, and then focused on five main research directions "research and development of natural products active substances and new drugs", "evaluation of Chinese medicine resources and quality" "the study on the pharmacodynamics and mechanism of active substances", "the synthesis of active compounds, structural modification and synthesis methods" and "the mechanism of natural products biosynthesis and enzymology" introduced the research work of the main members of the laboratory in recent years, the main projects undertaken by key laboratory in recent years and the main papers published.

After the report, all the participating experts had a full discussion and put forward many valuable suggestions and opinions. The expert group agreed that after years of construction and development, Hubei Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry and Resource Evaluation has achieved very good results, but it still needs to refine the research direction, and strive to build the provincial key laboratory into a state key laboratory.

At the end of the meeting, academician Sun Handong summarized the whole meeting and highly affirmed the development of the key laboratory in recent years. He hoped to continue to maintain the leading edge of natural medicinal chemistry at home and abroad, speed up personnel training and team building, and build the provincial key laboratory into a state key laboratory as soon as possible.