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The Construction of National Innovation Center for Bio-manufacturing Launched Bio-manufacturing Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of New Productive Forces

Published time 2024-07-15 15:22Click 50times

In his important speech at the National Science and Technology Conference, the National Science and Technology Award Conference, and the Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering held on June 24th, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the thriving of science and technology leads to the prosperity of the nation, and a strong scientific and technological foundation makes the country strong. Chinese-style modernization relies on the support of scientific and technological modernization, and achieving high-quality development depends on fostering new growth drivers through scientific and technological innovation. The Central Economic Work Conference in 2023 proposed, "We must promote industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation, especially by leveraging disruptive and frontier technologies to spawn new industries, models, and growth drivers, and develop new forms of productive forces." It also emphasized "building several strategic emerging industries such as bio-manufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy." The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Bioeconomy" identifies bio-manufacturing as the direction for the strategic emerging industry of bio-economy. Nowadays, as one of the strategic commanding heights in the new round of global technological revolution and industrial transformation, bio-manufacturing is changing the way materials are produced and is regarded as a new "industrial revolution" in the manufacturing sector.


To seize the development opportunities presented by the strategic emerging industry of bio-manufacturing and accelerate the cultivation of new forms of productive forces, the National Innovation Center for Bio-manufacturing (hereinafter referred to as the "NICB") was launched for construction in Guangming, Shenzhen, on July 14th, marking the official establishment of China's first national-level industrial innovation platform in the field of bio-manufacturing in Shenzhen. The NICB, built by national research institutions in partnership with central enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and leading private enterprises, will serve national major strategies, strengthen collaborative research on key common technologies, build an industrial collaborative innovation ecosystem, and support the creation of a highland for bio-manufacturing industrial innovation.

 

National Innovation Center Construction Launch Meeting Venue


In July of last year, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences to take the lead in establishing the NICB, collaborating with entities such as State Development & Investment Corporation, China Merchants Investment Development Co., Ltd., Shum Yip Group Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Guangming Science City Industrial Development Group Co., Ltd., Bloomage Biotech Corporation Limited, Shenzhen LEO-KING Group Co., Ltd., Guangdong Guangxin Innovation Research Institute Co., Ltd., Anhui Huaheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and other advantageous players up and down the industrial chain.


The NICB will be constructed at Guangming Science City in the first phase of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Comprehensive National Science Center, within the Guangming Yinxing Synthetic Biology Industrial Park. The project will involve upgrading existing buildings and purchasing core equipment to significantly enhance capabilities in analysis and design, construction and assembly, verification and testing, and deep learning.

 

the National Innovation Center for Bio-manufacturing (hereinafter referred to as the "NICB")

 

Upon completion, the NICB will work in tandem with other science, education, and industry-education platforms in Guangming Science City, such as the major science and technology infrastructure for synthetic biology research, the Shenzhen Engineering Biology Industrial Innovation Center, and the School of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, to achieve upstream-to-downstream collaboration from original innovations to industrial development and accelerate the formation of an innovative ecosystem for the entire synthetic bio-manufacturing industry.

 

Aerial Perspective Rendering of the National Innovation Center

 

Yu Jing, member of the Party leadership and deputy director of the Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission, expressed that Shenzhen attaches great importance to the development of the bio-manufacturing industry and has gone all out to promote the establishment of the NICB. As the only national-level industrial innovation platform in China's bio-manufacturing field, the establishment of this platform reflects the national support for Shenzhen's development of the bio-manufacturing industry and highlights Shenzhen's pioneering position in this field. The Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission will continue to support the NICB and strive to provide comprehensive services. It is hoped that the NICB will play a leading role in integrating upstream and downstream innovation resources, facilitating the application of research and development achievements, and driving the rapid growth of the bio-manufacturing industry in Shenzhen.

 

Qiu Haohang, Deputy Secretary of the Guangming District Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal CPC Committee and District Head, stated that the official launch of the construction of the NICB will serve as the core engine for the high-quality development of bio-manufacturing in the future, injecting new momentum into the construction of a world-class science city. Guangming District will provide comprehensive services and support for the construction and development of the NICB, enabling it to integrate advantageous innovation resources, enhance the innovation capability of the bio-industry, construct an industrial collaborative innovation ecosystem, foster clusters of innovative bio-industry enterprises, and build an innovation hub for the bio-industry with global competitiveness and influence.

 

Liu Chenli, Deputy Director of the SIAT, and Director of the NICB, noted that with the accelerated evolution of biotechnology and the rapid growth in demand for healthcare, a crucial opportunity for the rapid development of the bio-industry has arrived. The National Development and Reform Commission has approved the establishment of the NICB, and Shenzhen City and Guangming District have provided strong support for the project's implementation, seizing new opportunities, deploying in new areas, and creating new engines to accelerate the development of China's bio-manufacturing industry. The construction of the NICB not only conforms to the trend of global biotechnology frontier changes, but also closely aligns with the urgent requirements of the national scientific and technological innovation strategy and industrial transformation and upgrading. We will focus on the needs of major national strategic industries and concentrate on the "1-10" scale-up stages of bio-manufacturing, exploring the shift from the original linear conversion model from the laboratory to enterprises to a nonlinear interactive model, thereby promoting the high-quality development of China's bio-manufacturing industry.

 

This year's Government Work Report clearly states, "Actively build new growth engines such as bio-manufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy." As an important new productive force, the bio-manufacturing industry is characterized by high knowledge intensity, low material resource consumption, great growth potential, and excellent comprehensive benefits. The bio-manufacturing industry is gradually becoming a new engine leading economic development. The characteristic of "making everything possible" will enable customized design and mass production of products in such fields as medicine, industry, and agriculture, driving the shift of traditional industries to new productive forces.

 

Rendering of the National Innovation Center's Laboratory Building


Conceptual Diagram of a Bioreactor in the Laboratory


Conceptual Diagram of a "Multi-Linked Bioreactor" in the Laboratory


Addressing the current issues faced by the bio-manufacturing industry, such as weak innovation at the source and insufficient support for key common technologies, the NICB will establish six major technology platforms: an automated bio-manufacturing platform, a cross-scale biological multimodal verification platform, a high-throughput development platform for production processes, a pilot-scale scale-up and GMP platform, a large-scale vector preparation and quality control platform, and a bioinformatics computing support platform. These platforms will provide the hardware foundation for accelerating breakthroughs in industrial frontier technology bottlenecks. Focusing on green and low-carbon, bio-agriculture, and healthcare, the NICB will promote the commercialization of a batch of demonstrative achievements, build a bio-manufacturing industrial cluster with leading key technologies, a complete industrial chain, and prominent competitive advantages, and support Shenzhen in building an innovation hub for the bio-industry with global competitiveness and influence.

 

As the core engine of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen has a first-mover advantage and a solid industrial foundation in the fields of biology and information technology by actively constructing a full-process innovation ecosystem chain of "basic research + technological breakthrough + achievement industrialization + science and technology finance + talent support". This provides a profound foundation for the development of the NICB. In the future, with the establishment of the NICB, it will be based in the Greater Bay Area and extend its influence to cover the whole nation, significantly enhancing the source innovation capability and industrial competitiveness of the national bio-manufacturing industry, and laying a solid foundation for the vigorous development of the bio-manufacturing industry.