Newsletter

No. 78

October 2011

Headline News	Innovation and Development	Applied Technology	Basic Science	Cooperation between CAS and Local Authorities
Bioscience	International Cooperation	Brief News	Geoscience	Cooperation between CAS and Local Authorities

Headline News

Bai Chunli Visits Brazil and Argentina

Bai Chunli, President of CAS and his entourage paid a visit to Brazil and Argentina from Aug. 1-9. During his visit, Bai delivered a talk at the Fourth Brazilian Innovation Conference entitled S&T Innovation in China. During his attendance at the meeting, Bai and the group held talks with Mr. Aloizio Mercadante, Minister of Science and Technology, and several other government officials in charge of scientific and technological affairs. At the meeting, Bai, in view of the actual conditions for cooperation between the two countries, introduced the projects and updated progress of CAS, reviewed the history of cooperation, and expected future cooperation and exchanges with the Brazilian National S&T institutions. Both sides reached extensive consensus on the fields and types of cooperation. Mr. Aloizio Mercadante, the Minister, specifically emphasized that CAS is widely accepted as a substantial partner in science and technology by the Brazilian research institutions, and hoped to further improve the existing cooperation. At the ceremony for the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Brazilian Academy of Space Science and Technology, both Mr. Aloizio Mercandante, the Minister and Dr. Gilberto Camara, President of Space Science and Technology, highly commented the S&T cooperation between the two countries. During his visit to Argentina, Bai and the group made a visit to the National Research Council-Argentina (CONICET), Nano-Center and the Institute of Space Physics under the National Nuclear Committee and National University of San Juan. As a result of this visit, a memorandum of understanding for cooperation regarding joint building and operation of a 40 meter radio astronomical telescope was signed based on consensus reached by CAS, CONICET, the National University of San Juan and the provincial government during Bai’s visit.

Tumor Targeted Nano-bullet

Low targeting efficiency is one of the major limitations for nanoparticulate drug delivery system-based cancer therapy. To overcome these problems, the Laboratory of Controllable Preparation and Application of Nanomaterials at Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS led by Prof. Tang Fangqiong, has devoted to developing a new-generation of nano-particulate drug delivery system for biomedical applications. In 2009, they reported a novel approach to fabricate silica nanorattle with hollow and mesoporous structure (Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 3804-3807), and further developed a series of applications based on the special nano-materials. These results have been published on Angew Chem. Int. Ed., ACS Nano, and Biomaterials. Now, in collaboration with the Xuanwu Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen Cardiovascular Hospital, and the Beijing Creative Nanophase Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., etc., Tang and the group designed a new strategy for cancer targeting therapy. They uploaded the silica nanorattle encapsulated chemo-drug onto human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The laden MSCs with tumor-tropic ability can migrate toward cancer cells, and release the loaded chemodrug into tumor tissues with wider distribution and longer retention lifetime. With the MSCs as chaperones, they called this strategy “Trojan Horse”, which allows the nano-particulate drug delivery system to enter into inaccessible tumor regions to kill the cancers. Compared to conventional targeting method, this new strategy has increased targeting efficiency and targeting-initiative. This robust and effective strategy provides a promising alternative way for efficient cancer targeting and therapy, and brings bright foreground for the cancer patients. The reviewers consider that “they used a novel and interesting material. It is an efficient approach for tumor-targeted drug delivery using the tumor tropic property of MSC as a delivery vector and silica nanorattle-encapsulated DOX as a bullet.” Recently, the relevant research result has been published in ACS Nano(ACS nano2011, 9, 7462–7470).

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