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Professor Yang Baofeng,
President of HMU and a famous pharmacologist, based upon his projects of
National Natural Science Foundation of China and initial project of 973
Program, was granted another project of 973 Program as Chief Scientist with
a fund of four million US dollars. As the Chief Scientist, he will lead the
project on the basic research of the pathogenesis, prevention and treatment
of serious heart diseases in China. It is reported that it
is the first time for the Province to be granted a 973 Program with a Chief
Scientist status. This project will initiate a collaborative research in
major heart diseases in China.
Each year nearly three million people die of
cardiovascular diseases, which are the top killer in China and account for about 45%
of the total mortality of the Chinese population. Among them, there are nearly ten million patients suffering heart
failure. The four-year mortality rate after confirmed diagnosis is up to
50%. There are nearly 600 thousand deaths from sudden cardiac death each
year. Fifty percent of arrhythmia patients die of malignant arrhythmia.
Each year 130 billion RMB are used for medical bills of cardiovascular
diseases. Its increase is nearly two times that of the GDP. It has become
an enormous economic and social burden in China.
The project is targeted at cutting-edge areas in
the research of heart failure and arrhythmia and will tackle the
bottle-neck which hinders the improvement of heart disease treatment. A
five-year collaborative research aims to achieve the following outcomes:
Develop a multi-angle and
multi-level research and seek for the breakthrough in the pathogenesis and
key theories of heart failure and arrhythmia; establish an early warning
system for heart failure and arrhythmia, formulate effective intervention
strategies, and improve the treatment for these diseases; clarify the
mechanism of right heart failure, and formulate standards for the diagnosis
and treatment of right heart failure; train a group of researchers in heart
disease who are creative and first-class in the world; and raise the
scientific level of heart disease research in China and enhance its
international competitiveness.
This project involves major research resources
for heart disease research in China including one national key
laboratories, nine province-ministry key laboratories and six national key
disciplines, as well as a group of outstanding young and middle-aged
scientists including three Changjiang Professors
specially invited by the Ministry of Education, five scientists with
Outstanding Achievements Awarded by the Ministry of Health, two winners of
National Outstanding Youth Fund. Participants are experts in heart disease
from various areas including genetics, clinical medicine, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology. The participating institutions
include Harbin Medical University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese
Academy of Medical Sciences, Fudan University,
Peking University Medical Center, Shandong University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Jinlin
University, Nanjing University, Beijing Fuwai
Hospital, Peking University People’s Hospital, Central China University of
Science and Technology, Nanjing Medical University, etc. This project shows
the strength of HMU in the research of cardiovascular diseases.
Professor Yang Baofeng
said that this project would emphasize original innovation. It will
identify the critical control point in the shift from compensation to decompensation in heart failure. Further study will be
conducted on diastolic heart failure and right heart failure. The project
will explore the biological basis for the abnormal electric activity of
malignant arrhythmia, and find new critical targets. The transformation
research on these targets will facilitate the advancement of relevant
pharmaceutical research and development. The project is expected to
enormously raise the level of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of
serious cardiovascular diseases in China, to reduce the incidence
and mortality of heart diseases, and to ameliorate patients’ life quality.
Each year this project will benefit millions of heart patients, thus
helping to relieve social and familial burdens and to build a stable and
harmonious society in China.
NB: The
National Basic Research Program (also called 973 Program) is China's
on-going national keystone basic research program, which was approved by
the Chinese government in June 1997 and is organized and implemented by the
Ministry of Science and Technology.
By Nie Songyi |
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