School of Basic Medical Sciences

The School of Basic Medical Sciences was officially founded in 2015. Its history can be traced back to the Department of Basic Medicine at Shenzhen University School of Medicine founded in 2008. The School of Basic Medical Sciences is the major teaching and scientific research institution under the leadership of SZU HSC and is the base for education in all medical-related disciplines and basic medical research in SZU. The essential mission of the School is to train high-level healthcare professionals and medical scientists by providing multi-level basic medical education and promoting applied investigation into the pathophysiological mechanisms of human disease. The School aims to become one of the top, internationally competitive institutions for basic and translational medical sciences with distinguished features in certain fields.

The School consists of nine Departments (Department of anatomy, embryology and developmental biology, Department of Physiology, Department of Biochemistry and molecular biology, Department of cell biology and medical genetics, Department of medical immunity, Department of pathogen biology, Department of pathology, Department of pathological physiology, and Department of pharmacology), one Laboratory Teaching Center, one Faculty Core Facility and one Administrative Office. The School offers MSc program in Basic Medicine since 2016.

A number of provincial and municipal Key Laboratories have been established in the School, including the “Guangdong Key Laboratory for Genome Stability & Disease Prevention” (PI: Wei-Guo Zhu), the “Guangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases” (PI: Xin-Chun Chen), the “Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Allergen Standardization” (PI: Zhi-Gang Liu), the “Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Allergy and Immunology” (PI: Zhi-Gang Liu), the “Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine of Tumor” (PI: Duo Zheng), the “Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Anti-aging and Regenerative Medicine” (PI: Guangqian Zhou) and the “Shenzhen Laboratory of Orthopaedic Regenerative Engineering” (PI: Guangqian Zhou).

The School currently has 87 full-time academic staffs, 20 full-time researchers, 19 technicians, 32 postdoctors, 4 administrative staffs. Among academic staffs, there are 10 distinguished Professors, 19 professors, 14 associate professors, 44 lecturers / assistant professors, 70% of whom have overseas background, two winners of National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young scholars, one chief scientist of Innovation team of NSFC, two chief scientists of national key research and development projects, two winners of the "Excellent Youth Funding", one winner of the New Century Excellent Talents plan of the Ministry of Education, one in national "One Million Talents Project”, one young expert with outstanding contributions, two Special Allowance Expert of the State Council, three ”Top Thousand Talents Plan” experts, one in “Zhujiang Excellent Youth Plan”, one in “Guangdong provincial Engineering Project”, two distinguished professors in “Shenzhen scholars” program. Among Shenzhen Talent Pool, four national experts, seven municipal experts and 26 backup; among Shenzhen experts with overseas background, thirteen class B and twenty eight class C, thirty leading talents in Nanshan District, one SZU leading scholar, one SZU excellent scholar and four SZU youth excellent scholars.

The school undertakes undergraduate and graduate teaching in basic, specialized and professional medicine for the SZU HSC. Currently, the School offers 83 core courses and 35 elective courses for different medical disciplines, and opens 15 elective courses to students university-wide, with over 15,000 class hours per academic year. Over the past three years, over 165 research projects have been undertaken, including 75 NSFC, 2 national key R & D projects and 3 subprojects, 3 NSFC international cooperation projects, 1 national municipal joint fund key project, 21 provincial research projects, 69 municipal projects, 1 Shenzhen Peacock Project, 2 national, provincial and municipal platforms, with a total funding to ~180 million RMB(~26 million US$). 151 SCI + SSCI publications, 8 authorized invention patents, 1 first prize, 1 second prize and 1 third prize of provincial scientific and technological progress awards, and top 1% of ESI in clinical medicine, biology and biochemistry. The school of Basic Medical Sciences contributions the most to HSC.

Academic Discipline of Basic Medicine

Based on the international frontier of medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences has formed six professional research areas:

(1) Medical Genetics and Cell Biology: 5 professors and associate professors including Professor Xingzhi Xu (the most influential experts in DNA repair research in China), Professor Chaoliang Wei, Professor Duo Zheng, Professor Guangqian Zhou and Associate Professor Tian Xiao. Research in genome instability, tumor mechanism of action and treatment target, tissue degeneration and regeneration, transformation and application of cell therapy research. Professional in areas like DNA damage repair, tumor cell cycle regulation, calcium channel and mitochondrial function.

(2) Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine: 8 professors and associate professors including Professor Wei-Guo Zhu (chief scientist of Innovation team of NSFC, national outstanding youth, chief scientist of national key research and development project), Professor Baohua Liu (National Excellent Youth), Professor Zimei Wang, Professor Kunmei Ji, Professor Lixin Xia, Distinguished researcher Xiangyu Liu, Associate Professor Liyun Gong, Associate Professor Minxian Qian. Research in DNA damage repair and epigenetic modification, biomacromolecule homeostasis, aging molecular mechanism and intervention, dust mite allergen, tumor targeted drug resistance mechanism, etc. Professional in areas like tumor genome instability and epigenetic regulation, aging molecular mechanism and drug intervention.

(3) Pathology, Physiology and Pathophysiology: 15 professors and associate professors including Professor Xiaomei Wang, Professor Jie Liu, Professor Dongsheng Hu, Professor Rihong Zhai, Professor Xiaosong Ma, Professor Zhe Jin, Professor Feng Bai, Professor Ping Luan, Associate Professor Lizhong  Liu, Associate Professor Ying Ying, Associate Professor Guimiao Lin, Associate Professor Xulu Wu, Associate Professor Ming Dong, Associate Professor Ming Zhang, Associate Professor Xifeng Lu. Research in pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of metabolic diseases, the pathogenesis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, as well as the epidemiology of cardiovascular metabolic abnormalities.

(4) Immunology and Pathogenic Biology: 7 professors and associate professors, including Professor Xinchun Chen (National Outstanding Youth), Professor Zhigang Liu, Professor Pingchang Yang, Professor Weilin Chen (National Excellent Youth), Professor Shaojun Xing, Professor Zhong Huang, Associate Professor Lingyun Li. Research in basis and transformation of allergic diseases and autoimmune diseases, pathogenic biology and Immunology of infectious diseases (tuberculosis, AIDS, etc.) and the interaction of pathogen, host and microecology, as well as disease control and prevention.

(5) Anatomy and Histoembryology: 4 professors and associate professors including Professor Xinhai Pei, Professor Ou Sha (histoembryology and embryology), Associate Professor Sa Cai, Associate Professor Jun Wang (anatomy). Based on medical morphology of anatomy, histology and embryology, translational research in morphological medicine to molecular and clinical medicine, neurodegenerative diseases, tumor toxicology and immunotherapy, lipid metabolism regulation and receptor protein intracellular transport, fasciology, stem cell and DNA damage repair.

(6) Pharmacology: 6 professors and associate professors including Professor Desheng Lu , Professor Li Fu, Professor Yongxian Cheng (National Outstanding Youth), Professor Zhendan He, Associate Professor Suping Zhang, Associate Professor Haiqiang Wu. Research in anti-tumor drug targets and innovative drugs and anti-tumor immunotherapy, traditional Chinese medicine and natural small molecule structure activity and molecular action. 

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Stability and Disease Control

The construction of Laboratory of Genome Stability and Disease Control depends on Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, which integrates Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Tumor Translational Research, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Anti-aging and Regenerative Medicine, Shenzhen Natural Small Molecule Innovative Drug Engineering Laboratory and International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University General Hospital. Using Genome stability as the main clue, mainly focused on research in areas of mechanism of genome stability, the identification of bio-markers for diseases related to genome instability, and development of leading compounds that induce genome instability. Research area I: to further explore the molecular mechanism of protein post translation modification regulating genome stability and reveal the molecular origin of tumor development and cell aging; Research area II: to screen and identify bio-markers related to tumor diagnosis and treatment based on the signal pathway closely related to the stability maintenance of the foundation group revealed in research area I; Research area III: to utilize the monomer compound bank of traditional Chinese Medicine, insect endogenous small molecule bank and directed synthesis of small molecule compounds to screen and identify anticancer lead compounds that induce genome instability, laying a foundation for the development of new drugs with complete intellectual property rights.

Professor Wei-Guo Zhu is the director of the key laboratory, Professor Xingzhi Xu, Professor Yongxian Cheng and Professor Xizhuo Sun are the deputy directors. The leader of research area I is Professor Wei-Guo Zhu. Other professionals includes Professor Baohua Liu, Professor Chaoliang Wei, Associate Professor Haoxing Zhang, Associate Professor Minxian Qian, Professor Desheng Lu, Professor Li Fu and Professor Guangqian Zhou. The leader of research area II is Professor Rihong Zhai. Other professionals include Professor Zhe Jin, Professor Duo Zheng, Professor Zimei Wang and Professor Jie Liu. The leader of research area III is Professor Yongxian Cheng. Other professionals include Professor Dennis a Carson, Professor Zhendan He, Associate Professor Suping Zhang and Associate Professor Liyun Gong. Professor Xizhuo Sun is in charge of education in key laboratories.

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Disease of Tissues and Organs

Professor Xinchun Chen is the director of the key laboratory. Professor Shaojun Xing, Professor Weilin Chen and Professor Xinhai Pei are the deputy directors. Other staffs include 9 professors, 1 researcher, 3 associate researchers, 3 assistant professors and 30 postdoctoral, doctoral and master students.

The construction of the Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Disease of Tissues and Organs depends on Health Science Center, Shenzhen University. By multi-disciplinary integration and cooperation, research in regional immunity characteristics of organs with high incidence of diseases from a new perspective, changes of regional immunity characteristics and regulatory mechanism under physiological and pathological conditions, and focuses on clarifying the role, mechanism and key immune pathways of regional immunity in major high incidence diseases (pulmonary infection, liver tumors, inflammatory bowel diseases, etc.) related to immunity, therefore to provide new ideas for prevention and treatment of diseases, promote clinical translation and improve treatment effect. Based on the change rule of regional immunity of tissues and organs in disease development, four research areas have been formed: research area I focuses on clarifying the regional immunological characteristics of tissues and organs, to establish the baseline data of regional immunological characteristics of tissues and organs under physiological conditions, and to explore the mechanism of immune cell residence; research area II focuses on interaction and molecular mechanism between the regional immunity of tissues and organs (such as lungs) immune cells and pathogen infection, to reveal the molecular characteristics of tissues and organs in the area of pathogen infection, and provide ideas for disease immune intervention strategies; research area III studies the pathological mechanism of regional immunity of tissues and organs (intestines) in regulating inflammation and related diseases; research area IV focuses on the Non professional immune organ with high tumor incidence, internal relationship between regional immunity and tumorigenesis and development, and to find new therapeutic targets. The four research areas closely focus on the regional immune characteristics of tissues and organs, and carry out basic and cutting-edge research on regional immune characteristics of tissues and organs, so as to systematically carry out basic research on the relationship between regional immunity and diseases.