The 2018 National Science and Technology Award Conference was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 8th. State leaders such as Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng attended the conference and presented certificates to the representatives of the winners of State Natural Science Award, the National Awards for Technological Inventions and the National Award for Science and Technology Progress, as well as the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award of the People’s Republic of China.
Discovery of Novel Small Molecular Targeted Drugs Based on Pharmacophore Models, which was completed by the team led by Professor Yang Shengyong of our hospital, was granted the State Natural Science Award (Second prize) of 2018.
The Innovation and Promotion of Key Technologies for Repair of Serious Trauma in Spines, which was completed by Professor Song Yueming as the second accomplisher, and our hospital as the second accomplishing unit, was granted the National Award for Science and Technology Progress (Second prize) of 2018.
The second prize of the State Natural Science Award was completed by the teams led by Professor Yang Shengyong, Professor Chen Yingchun and academician Wei Yuquan. To overcome the challenges of high cost and long cycle in the research and development of innovative drugs, Yang’s research group has established a set of new theory and methodology system of de novo design of drug molecules based on pharmacophore models, which took about 10 years. The established methods have greatly improved the efficiency of molecular design of novel drugs and the pharmacokinetic properties of the designed compounds. These methods have been applied to the study of small molecular targeted drugs for major diseases such as tumors and autoimmunity. A variety of small molecular targeted compounds with high activity and selectivity have been found. Among them, 12 drug candidates have entered pre-clinical studies and 6 drug candidates have been transferred to pharmaceutical companies. Two new drug candidates (class 1.1) have entered clinical trials.
More than 120 articles involving the research results have been published on such authoritative journals as Leukemia, J Med Chem, Clin Cancer Res, Angew Chem Int Ed, J Am Chem Soc, and J Chem Inf Model. The accumulated impact factors of eight representative papers are 81.29, with a total number of 993 other citings, including 770 SCI other-citings and over 100 other-citings of five representative papers in a single SCI. The result has been positively cited or commented by some heavy-weight peer experts on the industrial authoritative magazines for a couple of times. 8 patents for invention, including eight international patents, and six software copyrights, were acquired. The computing method has been used by a couple of pharmaceutical companies or academic research institutions such as Novartis, Roche Group, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, University of Tokyo, University of Liverpool, and the University of Rome of Italy. The results have also been listed into the 100 Academic Articles of 2017 in China with the Most Influence in the World, and the 100 Excellent Doctoral Theses of 2013 in China, producing an important influence at home and abroad.
278 projects and seven scientists were reportedly selected in the appraisal activity of the 2018 National Science and Technology Prizes, among whom two scientists were granted the State Science and Technology Top Award; 38 projects were granted the State Natural Science Awards, including one first-class and 37 second-class awards; 67 were granted the National Awards for Technological Invention, including four first-class and 63 second-class awards; 173 were granted the National Awards for Science and Technology Progress, including two special-class awards, 23 first-class and 148 second-class awards; and five foreign experts were granted the International Sci-tech Cooperation Award of the People’s Republic of China.
