A Chinese newspaper recently unveiled a list of the country's top 10 sci-tech achievements for 2023, including one made by a team led by Prof. Li Hanjie from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Guangming District, Bao'an Daily reported.
The research achievement is jointly completed by Li's team in cooperation with Shenzhen Bao'an District Maternal and Child Health Institute, Shenzhen University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Fudan University.
The researchers unveiled the dynamics of human macrophage specification across 19 different tissues from early embryonic stages. The study was published in Cell on Sept. 12, 2023.
In this study, Prof. Li's team combined single-cell transcriptome sequencing, bioinformatic techniques, immunofluorescence, and in vitro functional assays to construct a high-resolution spatiotemporal dynamic map of the human prenatal immune system development.
Based on this map, the team focused on macrophages, the most tissue-specific lineage. They revealed the origin of differentiation, spatial localization, functional characteristics, and transcriptional regulation mechanisms of multiple macrophage subtypes during development.
Han Jiahuai, a CAS academician and professor at Xiamen University, spoke highly of this research achievement. "This study expands people's understanding of the diversity and function of the development of immune cells in the human body, helps to further understand the function and regulatory mechanism of the immune system, and provides important foundation for disease diagnosis, immunotherapy, and new therapy development."
This is the second time that the SIAT researchers' scientific advances have been selected for the national list.
SIAT scientists, led by Yu Tao, developed a new method to translate carbon dioxide and water into glucose and fatty acids, proposing a new strategy for artificial food production and the achievement was shortlisted in 2022 top 10 advances.
Science and Technology Daily released the list to sum up Chinese advances in areas such as frontier science, biotechnology, space probe, and engineering.
Other advances in 2023 include:
The establishment of a central science and technology commission.
Tiangong space station, which functions as a national space laboratory, has been put into operation.
FAST telescope found key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves.
Scientists identified a key gene in a crop that might, via genetic engineering, substantially improve crop yields in alkaline soil.
Quantum researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China generated a genuine entanglement up to 51 superconducting qubits.
A team from Tsinghua University reported a fully integrated chip consisting of multiple memristor arrays and all the necessary peripheral circuits to support complete on-chip learning.
China's self-developed large passenger aircraft C919 began its first commercial flight.
China's first domestically built large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, was delivered.
Shidaowan high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant, the world's first fourth-generation nuclear power plant, began commercial operation.