From December 6 to 7, the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) at University of Macau (UM) successfully held its first “The 1st ICMS Academic Symposium and Collaborative Retreat” at the Zhuhai Ocean Spring Resort. Under the theme “Focusing on Frontiers, Advancing Innovation, and Building a Collaborative Ecosystem,” the event brought together 35 Principal Investigators (PIs) and Research Assistant Professors across the institute. Through a combination of closed door discussions, flash academic talks, and round table dialogues, participants collectively reviewed ICMS’s future research priorities, strengthened internal collaboration mechanisms, and drafted a strategic blueprint for high quality institutional development.
The retreat was chaired by Prof. Xin Chen, Director of ICMS, who delivered welcoming remarks. Prof. Chen emphasized that the retreat aimed to serve as a “closed, cross team, and high intensity” exchange platform to refine the institute’s mid to long term research strategy and implementation roadmap. He also highlighted the importance of breaking down barriers between research teams, fostering substantive scientific collaboration, and welcoming newly joined colleagues to cultivate a culture of openness, trust, and mutual support.
During the “Research Flash Talk” session, each PI presented a concise overview of their group’s unique research focus, core technological platforms, shared resources, and collaboration needs. Professor Xin Chen opened the session by sharing his team’s latest progress in targeting TNFR2 for autoimmune disease treatment and tumor immunotherapy, introducing the high specificity TNFR2 inhibitor development platform and accessible disease model repositories. The discussions were lively and constructive, leading to complementary exchanges of expertise and the preliminary formation of potential collaborations.
Prof. Jianbo Wan, Deputy Director of ICMS, subsequently delivered a comprehensive review of ICMS’s development over the past five years, highlighting achievements in discipline building, talent cultivation, research platform expansion, and key academic outputs—laying a solid foundation for the institute’s next phase of strategic growth.
A round table discussion centered on the upcoming restructuring of the State Key Laboratories, a major national strategic opportunity. Participants engaged in in depth dialogue on optimizing ICMS’s research layout and integrating resources. The inaugural ICMS Academic Retreat was not only a platform for in depth intellectual exchange but also a meaningful practice in team building and consensus formation. Moving forward, ICMS will take this event as a new starting point to foster a highly collaborative, open, and innovative research ecosystem, advancing towards its vision of becoming a world class, globally recognized center of excellence in Chinese medicine research.
Round table discussion
Group photo