Director, Professor
Dr. Xiaoliang WANG

Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, founded in 1958, is currently accommodating more than 300 research scientists and technicians, and among them more than 70 are holding full and associate professorships, three were elected Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and two Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. With her foundation dated 50 years ago, the leading status of the institute, as one of the nation’s key pharmaceutical research institutions, is not only well acknowledged due to the significant

contribution it has made to the Chinese pharmaceutical industry and academia, but also strongly sustained by its gathering of top pharmaceutical scientists in China. Since the time “special government allowance” was set as official acknowledgement for those who made substantial contribution to science and technology, there has been totally 55 receivers of such honor in this institute. We also have nine professors winning the title “outstanding contributor”, two honored by central government of China and seven by Chinese Ministry of Public Health. In the recent years, the institute is able to proudly welcome the joining of 34 talented and dedicated young scientists, and most of them have received postdoctoral and graduate training in US, Europe and Japan. Among these young professors, 4 were selected to be part of the “Hundred-Thousand-Tenthousand Talent Project” sponsored by Chinese Ministry of Human Resource, 3 were entitled as “Peking Union Medical College Scholar professor”, 3 “Yangtze River Scholar professor”, and another 3 earned “Outstanding Young Scholar” support from Chinese Natural Science Foundation.

The fundamental task of Institute of Materia Medica is centered by research and discovery of innovative drugs that are useful in treating or preventing health threatening diseases. To fulfill this goal, creative multidiscipline researches based on Chinese plant medicine and natural product studies, adopting modern medical and pharmaceutical theories and technologies, are highly encouraged. Presently, ongoing projects in this institute are covering a number of important research areas, including cancer, cardio and cerebral vascular diseases, psycho and neuro-disorders, aging associated regressive diseases, hepatitis, inflammatory and immuno disorders and diabetes.

The Institute of Materia Medica is comprised of seven departments, namely medicinal chemistry, natural product chemistry, pharmacology, drug analysis, drug safety evaluation, biosynthesis and pharmaceutics. As a full-range-disciplined research institution, its extraordinary capacity in drug research and development is well recognized. Its research programs in natural product studies, computer aided drug design, combinatorial chemistry, molecular pharmacology and high-through-put drug screening, are prevailingly ranked as top ones national-widely. In addition, the institute also hosts a number of government sponsored special research centers, including the National Research Center for Drug and Metabolite Analysis, the National Research Center for New Drug Development, the National Research Center for Drug Screening, the Ministry of Technology Research Platform for Pharmacodynamics, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College New Drug Safety Evaluation center, the Ministry of Public Health Key laboratory for Natural Product Biosynthesis and the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Chinese Plant Medicine Resource Exploit.

Since the time of its establishment, researches in this institute have resulted in more than 100 marketed drugs, 124 new drug certificates including level-A novel pharmaceuticals, and 247 governmental and social awards and prizes. Since the inception of new research funding system in China in 1986, totally 785 grant applications from this institute have been approved. These studies have resulted in 5678 published papers, 276 monographs and 456 domestic and international patent applications.

IMM is one of the major training grounds of pharmaceutical talents in China. IMM awards doctoral degree and master degree in Medicinal chemistry, Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, and Pharmacology. There have been 46 Ph.D. supervisors and 144 M.S. supervisors, who have trained 371 PhD and 444 MS students in the past 50 years. IMM currently offers 21 graduate courses to more than 300 graduate students. The graduate programs of Medicinal chemistry, Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, and Pharmacology are the earliest disciplines authorized by the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council to award Ph.D. and M.S. degrees.

IMM has been able to adapt to the market-oriented economy, accelerate the commercialization of the basic research findings, and subsequently increase the market values of the business entities. Currently the main products discovered and developed by IMM researchers include Artificial Musk, Taxol Injection, Bicyclol Tablets, DDB, Homoharringtonine and TDA Ointment, some of which have been launched into international markets.

Institute of Materia Medica has established partnerships and collaborative relationships with pharmaceutical companies, universities and research institutes in more than 30 countries, including Japan, United States, Germany, and France. Institute of Materia Medica also hosts the editorial offices of three scientific journals: Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica, Chinese Chemical Letters and Journal of Asian Natural Products Research.

In the spirit of “Devotion, Innovation, Reality, and Cooperation”, generations of researchers at Institute of Materia Medica have been overachieving in the past fifty years. IMM researchers are looking forward to launching more quality products and making more significant contributions to the pharmaceutical research and development in the foreseeable future.