The latest developments in life science and bio-technology will
be discussed by seven Nobel laureates and famous scientists from
today until Thursday in Beijing.
The Nobel laureates include Chinese-born Lee Tsung-dao, winner
of the 1957 Nobel prize for physics; Robert Mundell, winner of the
1999 economic science award; Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel, who
shared the 1988 chemistry honor; Ferid Murad and Louis Ignarro, who
jointly won the 1998 medicine prize and Aaron Ciechanover, winner
of the 2004 chemistry accolade.
They've been invited by the Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum 2006
which is sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This
year the forum theme is "Life Sciences and Human Health."
Longer life expectancy would put further pressure on life
science and bio-technology research, said Lu Yongxiang, president
of CAS, in a statement.
The topics of the scientists' speeches will include China's life
science, healthcare, DNA research, new infectious diseases,
anti-cancer drugs and even transgenic techniques. The forum is
being held in the Great Hall of the People.
"The past two decades have provided many new tools to help us
understand biology and turn this understanding into new treatments
for human diseases," said Ernest Beutler of Scripps Research
Institute of the United States in a printed copy of his speech.
He'll give his presentation entitled "The Modern Road to Discovery
in Healthcare: a Challenging Journey" today.
Scientists from CAS will also speak on bird flu, cancer
medicines and human genetic projects. When combating bird flu and
other emerging infectious diseases three facets had to be
emphasized, Gao Fu, president of the Institute of Microbiology,
CAS, said in a statement. These were stronger prevention and
control measures, better public education and further basic
scientific research.
Wang Xiaodong, director of National Institute of Biological
Sciences and member of the American Academy of Sciences, will
present his cancer research findings on Wednesday afternoon.
Current cancer therapies mainly rely on surgical removal of
tumor mass in tandem with radiation and chemotherapy which can
eradicate cancer through non-specific damage, Wang says in a speech
extract. However, the drawbacks of these therapies were side
effects which caused the death of normal growing cells and the body
developing a resistance to the treatments.
(China Daily September 5, 2006)