Brain-computer interfaces, tumor chips... The world's cutting-edge science and technology projects are "at the top" in Beijing

On January 11, the final of the Zhongguancun International Frontier Science and Technology Innovation Competition was held at the Zhongguancun Demonstration Zone Exhibition Center. From China, britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Japan and other thousands of projects at home and abroad to highlight the 23 hard technology projects to meet the finals. In the end, the project teams such as the accurate diagnosis and treatment of glioma won the first and second runners-up of the finals and shared millions of prize money.

Multiple technologies for tumor patients to find a "new life"

How to break through the limitations of traditional medicine and benefit human health with new technologies? A number of cutting-edge projects that have reached the finals have given new hopes. The glioma precision diagnosis and treatment innovation team, which won the overall championship of this competition, discovered the fusion gene of a new therapeutic target of glioma for the first time in the world, and developed a subversive broad-spectrum chemotherapy drug and targeted drug peritinib. Bao Zhaoquan, the backbone of the team and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Neurosurgery of Tiantan Hospital, introduced that the main group of gliomas is middle-aged and middle-aged men, and the fatality rate is very high. It is expected that in 2022, the drug developed by the team will complete clinical trials, and this oral drug is expected to be listed in about 1 to 2 years to help patients effectively control the onset process.

In a glass bottle the size of a small thumbnail lid, there was a "nano-robot" in the state of transparent liquid. Shi Guiquan, founder and CEO of Junquan Zhi Pharmaceutical, introduced at the scene: "The nanorobot is actually a nano-scale molecular device, which can wrap the drug in its own structure, so that the drug is not swallowed up by enzymes, macrophages, etc. in the blood, and then release the drug when it reaches the location of the tumor cell." "The JunquanZhi Pharmaceutical team has realized the stabilization of nanorobots in living blood vessels for the first time in the world and efficiently completed the function of point-of-care drug transportation.

Also seeking better solutions for tumor patients is tumor chip technology. "In the past, the doctor may prescribe plan A, find that the effect is not good, and then change plan B, and then change C, but the patient's time is precious, and he can't withstand the toss of such a trial drug, and it is likely that the wrong treatment window will be done in this process." Dr. Xie Shutao, commercial director of Oak Technology, introduced that the team's technology can cultivate multiple tumor chips similar to the human environment based on a small number of samples of patient tumors, and help patients test drugs in vitro at the first time, so as to choose the most effective solution. At present, among the seven or eight hospitals that the team has cooperated in Beijing, colorectal cancer patients have already benefited from this technology.

Future technologies such as brain-computer interfaces are unveiled

With a small chip on the mobile phone, beauty lovers only need to take pictures with the mobile phone lens to measure the moisture content and wrinkles of the skin, and can also directly detect pesticide residues with the mobile phone. This is the tip of the iceberg of the runner-up team and the application prospects of optical technology in many fields. Its team has independently developed the world's first silicon-based miniature hyperspectral imaging chip, which can reduce the bulky spectrometer that used to lie in the laboratory by 99%, and the imaging speed is more than 100 times higher.

In the future, the human brain and computers will be able to connect seamlessly. Use "ideas" to control mouse walking, let monkeys play games with "ideas" in the air... These fanciful scenes have come out of science fiction films and become reality. In the exhibition area outside the final scene, the brain-computer interface technology displayed by Ning Moment Technology amazed many audiences, and the mice implanted with special chips for brain-computer interfaces were able to adjust the walking route under the remote control of the computer.

It is reported that Ning moment technology has independently developed key technologies such as neural interface special devices, chips, systems, software design, etc., and built the key underlying technologies required for the next generation of interoperable human-computer interaction. In the near future, this technology can be applied to the diagnosis and rehabilitation of severe brain diseases such as mood disorders.

Frontier competition into the "cradle" of science and technology unicorns

According to the organizers of the competition, the competition was officially launched in July 2021, and the competition collected nearly 1,000 hard science and technology projects at home and abroad, covering 12 cutting-edge hard technology fields such as biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and integrated circuits, of which overseas projects came from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Japan and other countries.

In order to carry out the investment and financing services of cutting-edge technology enterprises in depth, this year's competition set up the Zhongguancun Frontier Technology Investment and Financing Joint Association, organized a number of well-known venture capital, national teams, local teams and industrial capital and other investment institutions to participate, and made every effort to "transfuse and empower" hard technology enterprises with innovative capabilities and high growth. In less than half a year, 5 investment institutions such as Hillhouse Venture Capital and Zhongguancun Capital formed investment intentions with more than 20 competition enterprises, with a total investment amount of nearly 700 million yuan.

The Zhongguancun Frontier Technology Innovation Center jointly built by the Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee will provide a series of services such as rent reduction, talent introduction, public rental housing, investment and financing, intellectual property rights, and market expansion for the winning enterprises and other high-quality innovative enterprises.

It is reported that the Zhongguancun International Frontier Science and Technology Innovation Competition has gradually developed into an influential hard technology competition brand at home and abroad. The competition excavated a number of internationally leading cutting-edge disruptive technologies, such as breakthrough technologies such as drug research and development paradigm change, artificial intelligence underlying framework, and high-end chip independent control.

At the same time, the competition has become the "cradle" of the capital's technology-based unicorn enterprises, growing 17 unicorn enterprises such as Megvii Technology and Horizon, 8 companies such as Nuocheng Jianhua have been listed on domestic and foreign exchanges, and more than ten overseas and foreign projects have landed in Beijing. In addition, more than 70% of the technology or products of cutting-edge enterprises have been applied in major projects and activities such as the World Horticultural Games, Daxing International Airport, and the Winter Olympics, and have promoted the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.