Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Diseases

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Diseases, founded in December 2005, is a municipal key laboratory determined by Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality and a public open platform for scientific and technological innovation supported by the Clinical Research Institute of Shanghai General Hospital and Pancreatic Diseases Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University. The director of the Laboratory is Prof. Wang Xingpeng, President of Shanghai General Hospital and the director of the Academic Committee of the Laboratory is Prof. Fan Daiming, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Diseases covers a floor space of 1000 m². Its supporter has invested more than RMB 20 million in construction of infrastructures. Now it has such basic research platforms as molecular biology, cytobiology, intestinal microbiology, histomorphology, biobank and experimental animal, with which various researches on translational medicine for pancreatic diseases can be conducted. The primary research directions of the Laboratory includes (1) development and metabolism of pancreas, origin of pancreatic diseases: research on the role of pancreatic stellate cells in pancreas fibrosis, occurrence and development of pancreatic cancer, discussion of the relationship between lipid metabolism disorders and occurrence of pancreatic diseases and research on the function and mechanism of intestinal microecology in the origin, progress and treatment-based development of pancreatic diseases; (2) research on translational medicine of pancreatitis: multi-center clinical research on acute severe pancreatitis and protection of intestinal mucosal barrier, research on new diagnosis and treatment skill for pancreatitis with hyperlipidaemia and exploration of pathogenesis of autoimmune pancreatitis; (3) research on translational medicine of pancreatic cancer: research on the biomarkers for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, research on infiltration, metastasis, resistance to treatment, regeneration mechanism and discovery of relevant molecular drug target, discussion of the origin, development and molecular intervention of stem cells of pancreatic cancer and development of cancer genomics detection technology to direct individualized diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer; (4) research on progress and mutual transformation of pancreatic diseases: discussion of the relationship among chronic pancreatitis, diabetes and pancreatic cancer, research on the molecular mechanism of evolution from chronic pancreatitis to pancreatic cancer and research on risk of the patients with type II diabetes suffering pancreatic cancer and early molecular diagnosis.

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Diseases now has 5 PIs and 40 fixed researchers in various research directions including two persons selected by the "Thousand Talents Plan", one person winning the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, two persons of the National Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talent Project, two Leading Medical Talents of Shanghai Municipality and two excellent academic leaders of Shanghai Municipality. In recent five years, the Laboratory has undertook more than 100 various scientific research foundation projects at different level, obtained research grant over RMB 30 million, published about 500 academic research papers and cultivated more than 50 doctoral candidates.

Since its foundation, the Laboratory has established sound cooperative relationship with many well-known research institutes like M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the US, University of Texas, Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, SIBS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Cancer Institute and Shanghai Center for Bioinformation Technology.