Shanghai to ramp up support for cutting-edge biomedical tech

Shanghai will strengthen efforts to develop cutting-edge biomedical technologies, such as gene and cell therapies, mRNA, synthetic biology and regenerative medicine, city government officials said in a news briefing on Tuesday.

To further encourage innovation at the source, the city will also support artificial intelligence technology to empower drug research and development, and provide more intelligent application scenarios, local government officials said after releasing a new document that supports the innovative development of the entire biomedical industry chain.

"We must make full use of new technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence and deep learning, to focus on new drug discovery and validation, drug design, screening of novel types of drugs and drug safety analysis. We must also accelerate technological breakthroughs in models, algorithms, professional software and building shared innovative platforms," according to the document unveiled recently.