Established in 2005 by MOST, the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy (SKLB) is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary research centre, aiming to improve the treatment of major diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases, neurological disease, as well as chronic autoimmune diseases.
It was selected as one of the National Research and Development (R&D) Platforms for Novel Drugs in 2008 and became the site for the National Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy in 2013.
SKLB’s 100-plus researchers are studying gene and cell therapy, vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, and synthetic small molecules and natural products for drug discovery. Their work has yielded more than 500 research papers every year in peer-viewed journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Developmental Cell and Molecular Cell .
Taking advantage of the rich clinical resources of West China Hospital, SKLB has seamlessly integrated basic research and preclinical development with translational and clinical medicine. With an efficient and integrated technology chain for the discovery and development of innovative drug candidates, SKLB has, to date, licensed more than 50 patents in China and transferred 45 potent candidate drugs for commercial development.
The 80,000-square-metre laboratory is still expanding. The National Translational Medicine Center for Biotherapy, due to open in 2019, will more than double SKLB’s research space and facilitate the translation of basic research from bench to bed.
