The State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, formerly known as the Jiangsu Provincial Reproductive Medicine Laboratory, was approved by the Jiangsu Provincial Education Department in 1996, and was established in 1997 based on Nanjing Medical University. After years of construction, research, and opening up, it was selected as the State Key Laboratory Cultivation Site jointly established by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Jiangsu Province in 2003, the Jiangsu Provincial State Key Laboratory Cultivation and Construction Site in 2005, and the Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine of the National Population and Family Planning Committee in 2008. In March 2011, it was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology to establish a state key laboratory. In 2013, it successfully passed the acceptance organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The laboratory is focus on human reproductive health and deeply exploreing the regulatory mechanism of gametogenesis and reproductive-related diseases from the molecular, cellular, individual and population levels. For the increasing demand of reproductive health care in China, the laboratory takes the gonadal function and related diseases” as the main line, conducting researches around gametogenesis and sex hormone production. Following the new view of translational medicine “from clinical questions-to basic answers-to guide clinical application”, the laboratory has set up four main research directions that are relatively independent and complementary to each other. They are: 1) molecular mechanisms of gametogenesis; 2) environmental/genetic factors and reproductive health; 3) the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and reproductive health; 4) reproductive origins of major diseases.
The director of the laboratory is Professor Hu Zhibin, the director of the academic committee is Academician Meng Anming of Tsinghua University, and the deputy directors are Academician Zhou Qi of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academician Cheng Jing of Tsinghua University and Academician Qiao Jie of Peking University. 86 people are currently affiliated with the laboratory, with 50 professors (including chief physicians) and 16 associate professors (including senior experimenters). Remarkable achievements have been made in laboratory personnel training and team building. At present, the laboratory has 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 3 distinguished professors and 1 young scholar of Chang Jiang Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education, 7 winners of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, 5 winners of National Excellent Youth Fund, 8 chiefs of “973” and key research and development special projects, and 5 winners of the New Century Hundred, Thousand and Ten-Thousand Talent Project at the state level. In addition, the laboratory has an innovation team of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, an innovation team of Chang Jiang scholars from the Ministry of Education, and three introduction teams of the “Innovation Team Plan” in Jiangsu Province.
Since 2011, the laboratory has got 245 scientific research funding at the national, provincial and ministerial levels, including 30 “973 Program”, 129 projects of national natural science foundation, 6 international cooperation projects and 73 projects of provincial ministries and commissions, and received research grant totaling 169 million CNY.
Since 2011, the laboratory has obtained 4 national awards, 12 provincial and ministerial awards, 31 national patents, and nearly 600 academic papers published in important academic journals at home and abroad, including more than 500 papers published in SCI source journals such as Cell, Nature, Nature, Genetics, and PNAS. The total number of citations of published papers has reached more than 5,000.
The laboratory currently covers an area of more than 13,000 m², including a specimen library of 1,500 m² and a clinical reproductive diagnosis and treatment center of 9,900 m². Relying on the 20,000 m² of the pharmaceutical laboratory animal center which was managed by the laboratory, the laboratory has a mouse feeding environment which is at SPF-level barrier in line with national standards, as well as a series of advanced laboratory animal analysis equipment such as animal imaging and behavior. Relying on the above conditions, SKLRM has established a complete cell biology platform (including SIM), high-throughput sequencing platform, high-throughput proteome platform, high-performance computing platform, model animal gene knockout platform, assisted reproductive technology platform, birth cohort resource library and so on, which provides strong support for high-level research.
After years of construction, the laboratory has formed a scientific research entity with talent echelon, research platform and operation experience, and has produced a series of major scientific and technological innovation achievements. It has become an important base for organizing frontier research in reproductive medicine, gathering and training outstanding scientists, carrying out academic exchanges, and promoting clinical transformation.
Website：The State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine
