On April 3, Agilent Technologies awarded an “Agilent Award for Thought Leaders” to Liu Chenli, a researcher with the Synthetic Biology Institute of SIAT. The award will support his pioneering research in synthetic biology, mainly including the top-down approach to understand the biological gene circuit and building self-replicable synthetic cells by coordinating the functions of individual cells.
In the past 13 years since the establishment of the award, 56 scientists around the world have won the award. Previously, three famous scholars in the field synthetic biology have won the award, including James Collins, George Church and David R Liu.
Professor Liu Chenli has been committed to the research of quantitative synthetic biology for a long time. Based on the research idea of “quantitative analysis and synthetic reconstruction”, he focuses on important scientific issues such as the basic principles of the formation process of complex biological systems and the rational design principle of synthetic biology systems. The synthetic biology team of Shenzhen led by him has always adhered to the world’s science and technology frontier and national major demands, played an active role in terms of major original innovation, tracing of original technology and key breakthroughs in core technology, promote the development of synthetic biology technology and innovation capacity, with an aim to make up the shortage in the basic research of the field, overcome the inherent challenges in the process of research and development, and constantly perfect the whole-process innovation ecological chain of “basic research, technology research, achievement industrialization, high-tech finance and talent support”.
Professor Liu Chenli said, “It’s an honor for me to win the Agilent Thought Leader Award. Synthetic biology is one of the international cutting-edge interdisciplinary fields. A series of disruptive technologies in the field will probably lead to a scientific revolution in biomedicine, food and sustainable development in the future. We will continue to explore and strive to build Shenzhen into a global highland of synthetic biology. We believe that with the support of Agilent and with the help of analytical and detection technologies and solutions, our important projects in the field of synthetic biology will soon bear fruit and will achieve key breakthroughs in synthetic biotechnology.”
Dr. Darlene Solomon, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Agilent and an academician of the American Academy of Engineering, said, “It can be said that since the humankind discovered the helix structure of DNA, the rapid development of synthetic biology is setting off the third biotechnology revolution. Synthetic biology, a revolutionary technology, will have a profound impact on how humans produce more sustainable products. Over the past few years, Agilent has focused on the field of synthetic biology, supporting frontier researchers like researcher Liu and highlighting our consistent commitment.”
It’s reported that Agilent Thought Leader Award provides research funding, products and technical support for the researches of authoritative thought leaders in the fields of life science, diagnostics and chemical analysis, and will promote substantial progress in basic science. In 2022, the award was awarded to three scholars. Other than researcher Liu, the other two were Professor Gerhardt Attard from University College London with ground-breaking contributions to the clinical treatment of prostate cancer, and Professor Jason Kovacic from Sydney Zhang Renqian Cardiac Research Institute with a prominent contribution to clinical research.
The Agilent Thought Leader Award program will provide research funding, products and technical support for the researches of authoritative thought leaders in the fields of life science, diagnostics and chemical analysis, which will undoubtedly promote long-term progress in basic science.
Yang Ting (left), Vice President of Agilent Global and General Manager of Greater China Region, presents the Agilent Thought Leader Award trophy to Professor Liu