Date: March 29, 2019  
Source: China Education Daily  
Author: Liu Dun 
Correspondent: Chen Wenju, Li Jianyuan

JNU, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a well-known pharmaceutical company in Shanghai have reached a cooperation intention to transfer the global development rights to the anti-tumor candidate drug JND30134, with a contract worth nearly 800 million yuan. It is just one of five new preclinical candidate drugs jointly developed by JNU and enterprises.

JND30134 was developed jointly by a JNU team led by Ding Ke, dean of its Medical School; Geng Meiyu, a professor at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica; and Ding Jian's team from the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The researchers targeted core technologies to make their breakthrough. This drug is more targeted, active, effective and safer than similar drugs under development.

JNU focused on creating 13 leading discipline groups, such as drug innovation and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, to boost discipline development. It had the rare opportunity of Guangdong’s promoting the construction of high-level universities and selecting and cultivating advantageous and characteristic disciplines. In 2018, JNU selected eight leading discipline groups, making it a unique and strong discipline system.

At present, eight JNU disciplines, including pharmacology and toxicology, biology and biochemistry, have reached the top 1% of ESI in the world, promoting the development of other disciplines.

In the last two years, JNU has provided a sound environment for first-class discipline construction through reforms in the personnel system and resource allocation. As of March, JNU has the third-highest number of ESI disciplines ranks among universities in Guangdong.