Likes
An SCNU team was awarded the gold prize for the world-leading technique FRET at the innovation and entrepreneurship competition held in Zhuhai, in Guangdong province on February 28.
With the theme of "attracting talents around the nation and developing the pool of Greater Bay Area talents", the first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition established two categories of competition groups: innovation groups and entrepreneurship groups. The team led by Chen Tongsheng, dean of the College of Biophotonics of SCNU, stood out with its world-leading Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) technique among 37 finalists in the innovation groups.
Chen's team poses for a group photo at the award ceremony.
The awarded FRET technique is the only imaging technology capable of conducting real-time in situ analysis of the mutual regulation and dynamic process of molecules at the level of living cells and whole cells.
Combining the super-resolution microscope with the FRET technique, Chen's team achieved an innovative breakthrough in life science research, landing them the gold prize in the innovation group. "There have been many researchers all over the world trying to combine the super-resolution microscope with the FRET technique before us, but none were successful. So far, only our team has made headway in the combination and proved the feasibility of this idea." said Chen Zhi, one of the team's leaders and a postgraduate of the College of Biophotonics of SCNU.
The main strengths of the imaging system of FRET lie in the following aspects. First, with the one-touch operation system of the intelligent quantitative microscopic imaging system, technicians can quickly finish the experiment process of automatic measuring, real-time processing and quantitative analysis, which shortens the experiment time from 1-2 weeks to less than two hours, or even ten minutes, and improves the working efficiency.
Second, since the project group of Chen is in charge of calibration, data collection, image processing and image analysis of the system, it helps to bring the localization degree of the FRET microscope to 90 percent. Due to the high localization degree, the cost of the camera and the control turntable is drastically reduced, so Chen's team can save scientific research expenditure.
Lastly, compared to the microscopes of Zeiss and Leica, the FRET microscope can greatly broaden the viewing zone of living cells and can carry out large-scale analyses of whole cells and even multiple cells at the same time.
Photo of the FRET microscope.
At the current stage, the team led by Luo Zewei and Chen Zhi is conducting research on the super-resolution quantitative imaging instrument of FRET for living cells. They have managed to improve the imaging accuracy to 100 nanometers, a result which has greatly promoted the development of the FRET technique.
During the first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, the team learned about research on drug use, drug research and development and basic life science conducted by teams from some level A tertiary hospitals. It offered the team a clear direction for future development, which is to explore the application of FRET in drug screening. It also facilitated their confirmation of the goal to transform the technique into a commercial instrument and a productive force. It underscored the importance of conducting scientific research aligned with the country's needs. Hence, at the next stage, Chen's team will continue to advance the FRET technique and develop a tailor-made algorithm for drug screening in order to meet its high throughput and high-quality needs.
Luo Zewei (left) and Chen Zhi (right), two leaders of the team, answer questions from the jury during the finals.
Chen Tongsheng's team, comprising doctors and post-doctors of SCNU, contains members from eight disciplines such as biology, physics, optical engineering, computer science, mathematics, product design and so on. Members from different disciplines bring in different concepts and technologies relevant to the research. It helps broaden the whole team's horizon and enhance their understanding of the industry. Thus, an interdisciplinary approach and the ability to consider multiple dimensions have become the remarkable advantages of this team.
Led by Chen Tongsheng, the team differed from its competitors and made achievements at many provincial and national competitions over the past few years. What's more, through their efforts, the team's research on the FRET technique was funded by the State Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2021 and won a 20-million-yuan fund from the Research and Development plan in key areas of Guangdong province for precision instrumentation and equipment in 2022.
Group photo of Chen Tongsheng and his team.
As the general leader of this distinguished team, Chen Tongsheng sets high requirements and is a good example for his students. As a researcher, Chen reads cutting-edge articles and learns about advanced knowledge to tackle academic issues. As a mentor, Chen attaches great importance to student development and gives guidance to them during meetings. Besides work, he cares about his student's health and mental state in daily life, sending his students love and warmth.
Photo of Chen Tongsheng at the laboratory with the FRET microscope.
The FRET technique, which can be simply interpreted as an optical nano ruler, can reflect the sensitive changes between two molecules at a distance between 1 to 10 nanometers. It can be widely used in the research of the molecular mechanism of cell signal transduction, the molecular mechanism of disease occurrence and development, and the research and development of molecularly targeted drugs. The technique fills the gap of function detection and product analysis for the molecular structure of living cells in life science research at home and abroad.
The first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, held by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, has set up a platform for the doctors and post-doctors to show their talents and contribute to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It also builds the bridge for cooperation between industry and higher education and technology transformation.
Source from SCNU News Center
Translated by Li Jun, Long Yuchen
Proofread by Edwin Baak
Edited by Wang Yingmin
What to read next:
