Center of Excellence in Tissue Engineering of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) has been focusing on adult stem cell biology and tissue engineering since its foundation in 2003. The center has gathered many talents of CAMS/ PUMC in fields of cell biology, biotechnology, laboratory animal science and clinical medicine, forming an interdisciplinary research entity which is capable of research from bench top to bed side.
Our center has been granted more than twenty national major scientific research funds, including 863 Project, 973 Project, Cheung Kong Scholars Program, National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, National Natural Science Foundation of China, CMB Fund and Cheung Kong Scholars and Innovative Research Team. With the purpose to identify, characterizing and understanding the regulatory processes and mechanisms that govern self-renewal and lineage differentiation in human adult stem cells, we are able to provide novel therapies for regenerative medicine.
Ten years ago, our research team hypothesized that there is an undefined subfraction of embryonic-like stem cells left over in a number of tissues beyond embryonic development, especially in the fetus, of which we named post-embryonic pluripotent stem cells (PEPSC). To prove this concept, the very first approach taken was to identify the pluripotent stem cells from a variety of human fetal tissues. We have characterized this putative stem cell subpopulation from human fetal pancreas, bone marrow, liver, skin, skeletal muscle and many other tissues and we found they share similar morphology and phenotype and are capable of multi-organ engraftment and multi-lineage differentiation, which served as a consequence holding great promise for regenerative medicine.
In the year of 2015, our center lab was rated as ”Beijng Key Laboratory of New Drug Development and Clinical Trial of Stem Cell Therapy”. This Key Lab is mainly responsible for the development of new drugs for stem cells in cell therapy scientific assessment of the clinical conversion technology, quality control, technical reference sharing, storing clinical resources, technical training and so on. With the purpose of working out a complete set of stem cells, cell therapy clinical drug development transformation technology assessment and quality control system, it is the first in the country to build basic research and clinical translation of combining and open sharing of drug and technology of stem cells reference Lab platform. Meanwhile, with the support of professional researchers, we have developed the construction of a type of specialized stem cells for a variety of incurable diseases, laboratory products and application platform for clinical translation needs, in order to meet clinical department personnel and carry out research and development related to drug products, National Research Foundation of technology needs and clinical translational research technology needs.
In 2022, we launched the project of "Establishment and Application of Clinical Strategies for Accurate Diagnosis and Treatment of Critical COVID-19", aiming at difficulties in the treatment of critical COVID-19, which took the lead in evaluating safety and efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of critical COVID-19, establishing a rapid research and development system of specific COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies, and precise, efficient treatment
strategies as well. Together with Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Institute of Laboratory Animals Science, the center has successfully obtained the approval of CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences(CIFMS). As the initiator and the executive chairman of the conference, Prof. Zhao successfully held 2022 International Forum on “AI & Cognitive Science” and “Aging & Diseases”. This forum is the first international cross innovation that combines AI artificial intelligence with aging diseases. What’s more, it was broadcasting alive all over the world, with a total of more than 3.5 million viewers. Also, as a corresponding author, Prof. Zhao has published 17 SCI articles (the highest impact factor of a single article is 38.10 and the average impact factor is 9.8). Besides, the center won the second prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Beijing Science and Technology Award in 2022.
Website: www.tepumc.com
Director: Chunhua Zhao