The National Natural Science Foundation of China held the on-site communication meeting for the national major program of scientific instrument and equipment named

Recently, an on-site communication meeting for the national major program of scientific instrument and equipment named "the development of human lung MRI system for lung major diseases research" was held by the National Natural Science Foundation of medicine in Wuhan. During the meeting, the project expert group consists of group leader Ning Gu professor from Southeast University and other members took part in the communication to inspect the program progress. Shen Yan, the deputy director of NSFC, Xianping Meng, the director-general of planning bureau of NSFC, Erdan Dong, the executive deputy director of department of health sciences of NSFC, Ruijuan Sun, the executive deputy director of department of health sciences of NSFC, Ning Cao, the deputy director of finance bureau of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).etc attended the meeting. The meeting was held by Erdan Dong, the executive deputy director.

During the meeting, Shen Yan, the deputy director of NSFC gave a brief introduction to the meaning of our country setting up the national major program of scientific instrument and equipment and put forward the clear acquirement to the on-site communication meeting. He emphasized that major program of scientific instrument and equipment is an important part of the layout of the development strategy of science and social economy of our country, which aimed at encouraging and nurturing the development of exploratory research instrument containing the originality of thought. He pointed out that the major task of the program named "the development of human lung MRI system for lung major diseases research" is providing visual and high sensitive new equipment and technology for the scientific research of lung disease. This work will be of great significance in enhancing China's core competitiveness in the field of diagnosis and therapy of lung diseases. He hoped project expert group to give an objective appraisal in the project progress and put forward the guiding opinion on the project team.

Subsequently, the project expert group listened carefully to the report of principal investigator (PI) Xin Zhou professor and the investigator of various subjects on the project progress, and conducted field visits and question discussion. The project expert group concluded: the project progress was ahead of the medium-term objectives schedule, yield and signal enhancement rate of hyperpolarized Xe and many other targets are better than the medium-term targets; the project has accomplished the development of the imaging coil, the hyperpolarized gas introduction device, the design of magnetic resonance imaging sampling system, testing and debugging, successfully made through the magnetic resonance imaging of animal lung gas ("Hyperpolarized ₁₂₉Xe magnetic resonance imaging of animal's lung" achievement has passed the identification of scientific and technological achievements); the project has made a study of pulmonary function in quantitative lung disease models, developed a variety of image post-processing methods which have good effects. At the same time, the project also developed a variety of new multi modality (MRI / optical), multi function (diagnostic / therapeutic) molecular probes, ultra sensitive molecular probes and imaging technology, a series of new methods of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. At the same time, the group of experts suggested: to achieve project final goal as soon as possible -- getting hyperpolarized ₁₂₉Xe MRI of human lung, strengthening the combination with the clinical medicine, providing innovative equipment and technology for the study of major diseases of the human lung, providing more qualitative and quantitative key information for the early clinical diagnosis.

The expert group attending this on-site communication meeting was consist of the committee members of national major program of scientific instrument and equipment committee of experts, committee members of advisory committee of experts, the Ministry of Science, experts of Management working group, science and technology financial evaluation experts and invited experts. Huanying Xie, the National Natural Science Fund Committee Planning Bureau Director, Enzhong Li, deputy director of medical science department, Professor Yuhua Peng, Ji Zhang, the project director, Yanbin Jiang, The Finance Bureau deputy director, Chinese Academy of Sciences also participated in this on-site communication meeting. The project group thought that the leadership of fund committee's great attention and the guidance of the experts of all aspects provided an important guarantee for the smooth implementation of the project.