Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced the “14th Five-Year” National Key Research and Development Plan “Synthetic Biology“ key special project. SHNU professor Ma Weimin, from the School of Life Sciences, as the chief scientist of the project, leading the application of the “Artificial Design and Creation of Efficient Carbon Fixation Module with C3 Crops (No.:2023YFA0914600)” was approved by the state fund of RMB17.76 million Yuan. This marks the first time that Shanghai Normal University has been approved as a leading unit of the national key research and development plan project, which has achieved a new breakthrough in the establishment of national major scientific research projects for Shanghai Normal University.
This project was collaborated by such institutes as Shandong University, Henan University, Qingdao Institute of Bio-energy and Process, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Agricultural Genomics, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Ocean University of China.
As a country with a large population, China has to import over 100 million tons of foods overseas, thus accentuating the risks of food security issues. Increasing the average output per acre by ways of C3 crops might become a primary means to tackle the problem, tapping the principle that algae, as a plant gifted with carbon dioxide concentration, could be used in photosynthetic carbon fixation for its amazing efficiency of about ten times that of C3 crops. The bottlenecks could be solved by improving C3 production to serve the strategic demands of Chinese food security.
The SHNU professor Ma Weimin is a leading scientist in National Key Development Plan and is now the member of a series of pioneer academic organizations, including China Algae Association, Professional Committee of National Photosynthesis, Chinese Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, etc. He has hosted seven state projects, eight provincial projects and published more than 60 academic papers at SCI, including Nature Communications and Angewandte Chemie International Edition, etc.
