2012 Workshop on the Progress of Frontier Research in Life Sciences and Technology Held at TJU

The 2012 Workshop on the Progress of Frontier Research in Life Sciences and Technology was held on August 1 at Tianjin University (TJU). Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier and local experts in related fields delivered reports on the latest progress of frontier research in life sciences and technology, impressing nearly 100 TJU students and faculty members with their academic charm. President Li Jiajun greeted the guests before the workshop.

The workshop was chaired by Professor Zhang Weiwen from the School of Chemical Engineering. President Li extended his welcome to the guests and gave them an overview of TJU. Professor Luc Montagnier delivered a speech entitled New Frontiers in the Detection of Infectious Agents in Chronic Diseases. Afterwards, Professor Han Zhongchao from the Institute of Hematology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Li Qiang from the Affiliated Cancer Institute and Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, and Professor Zhang Weiwen from the TJU School of Chemical Engineering gave lectures on Stem Cell Technology and Application, Progress in Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Cancer, and Synthesizing Microbial Systems for Biological Exploration and Application respectively. Active academic exchanges were also held during the workshop.

During his stay, Professor Montagnier also visited the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Systems Bioengineering at TJU and the State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology of the Institute of Hematology at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Luc Antoine Montagnier, born in Chabris, France on 18 August 1932, received his doctorate degree in medicine from the University of Paris. As a long-time biochemical researcher on cancer viruses, interferon and vicious transformation, he has dedicated most of his scientific career to the two famous French research institutes - the Institute Curie and the Pasteur Institute in Paris (30 years). He is also the co-founder of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. Professor Montagnier is best known as joint recipient with Fran?oise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1983 discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which has been identified as the cause of AIDS. In addition to developing HIV vaccines, he is recently devoted to the research on diagnosing and treating tumors, deregeneration of the nervous system, and joint diseases caused by microbes and viruses based on innovative technology.