Vland holds“Dancing with Change”Forum 2024

Vland Technology Innovation Sharing Annual Conference 2024 themed by "Dancing with Change" was held in Qingdao, China on June 12. At this conference, we conducted in-depth discussions on the industrial application of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, and demonstrated Vland's innovative achievements. Following the main forum, three sessions were included to discuss synthetic biology & animal nutrition, animal health care, and marine biology, respectively. Nearly 800 people, including well-known experts and professors from scientific research institutions, company leaders in the industry, Vland's partners and R&D team, attended the conference.

"Dancing with Change" Main Forum

Lu Yang, deputy secretary of the Working Committee of Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, executive deputy director of the Management Committee, and deputy secretary of CPC Chengyang District Committee, attended the meeting and delivered a welcome speech.

Mr. Chen Gang, head of Vland, delivered a keynote speech themed by "Dancing with Change". Focusing on sharing the integrated innovation system of Vland with cases, he believed that integrated innovation capability is the cornerstone of Vland's ecosystem and also Vland's comparative advantage. "Integrated innovation capability enables Vland to expand its ecosystem and build itself into the best integrated transformation platform for scientific and technological achievements and the best empowerment platform for industrial innovation and upgrading", said Chen.

Industry experts and professors from the fields of nanozymes, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence shared their insightful ideas on the current innovation environment and future development directions.

Researcher Gao Lizeng from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared his research progress on nanozymes and bionic antibacterial applications. He elaborated on the characteristics of the new generation nanozymes, and explained with cases nanozymes mimicking multi-enzyme catalytic sterilization of immune cells. 

Researcher Wang Yu from Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared his views on biomanufacturing as the "New Force" for developing new quality productive forces". He introduced in details the development, existing problems, trends and key directions of biomanufacturing, followed by the application of biomanufacturing in strain creation.

Professor Hong Liang, deputy dean of the Chongqing Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, used cases to explain the application and advantages of AI models in protein engineering technology.

Researcher Tao Yong from the Key Laboratory of Microbial Physiology and Metabolic Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that "Biomanufacturing is a new material production method spawned by molecular revolution and industrial demand, and high-efficiency chassis strains are the key for biomanufacturing to achieving an over 30% penetration rate."

At last, chief scientists and leaders from Vland's business platforms of enzymes, probiotics, animal nutrition, and animal health care presented their innovative achievements, respectively.

Session 1: Synthetic Biology & Animal Nutrition

Researcher Lv Xuefeng, Director of Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Director of Shandong Synthetic Biotechnology Innovation Center, delivered a speech titled "Synthetic Biotechnology of Agrochemicals and Green Biomanufacturing" to introduce the application of synthetic biology in agrochemicals, and provided his ideas on the development of synthetic biotechnology industry.

Researcher Zhuang Yingping, Director of the National Center of Bio-Engineering & Technology (Shanghai) of East China University of Science and Technology, gave a speech titled "Synthetic Biology and Intelligent Biomanufacturing". In her speech, she elaborated on the basics of bioreaction process engineering, optimization and amplification technology of fermentation process for bulk fermentation products, and preliminary exploration of intelligent biomanufacturing research and application. In-depth analysis was made on intelligent optimization and regulation of erythromycin biomanufacturing process, intelligent industrialization demonstration of biological processes, and optimization research of sophorolipids based on on-site sensing technology and modeling.

Dr. Wang Xu, general manager of Evonik Vland Biotech (Shandong) Co., Ltd., introduced the company's market mission and product solution innovation. Combining Evonik and Vland's strengths in systematic biosolutions and application research, the market-oriented joint venture focuses on the development and application of animal intestinal health products and solutions, and provides customized solutions for enteritis caused by Clostridium perfringens in poultry farming.

Mr. Guo Jiyuan, chief scientist of Vland's Living-Source Lab shared his views on the quality management and appraisal of feed materials, and explained by taking the feed antioxidant as an example. Dr. Huang Qinghua and Dr. Jin Rong presented the precise use and value enhancement of barley and the use of phospholipid emulsifier, respectively.

The last part — roundtable discussion — was hosted by Dr. Lv Mingbin, a senior technical expert in animal nutrition, and attended by Researcher Tao Yong, Ms. Jin Hongyu, Vice President of Wellhope Group, Mr. Wang Youcheng, Chairman of Teamgene, Dr. Cao Ningjun, Vice R&D President of ADM Asia Pacific, Vland's CEO Mr. Chen Gang, and Vland's chief scientist Dr. Wang Huaming. They had in-depth exchanges on the topics of synthetic biology, human nutrition, and animal nutrition to explore new models of cross-border cooperation.

Session 2: Animal Health Care

Yang Bitao, President of Vland's Animal Health Business Platform, shared the strategic planning of Vland animal health care business. He believed that this Platform is fully capable of dealing with external uncertainties, delivering systematic solutions to user pain points, and contributing to healthy farming due to its advanced technologies (facilities + process + R&D), high product quality and first-class service system.

Dr. Xu Hongjun, Chief Scientist of Vland Biologics Technology Center and Technical Director of Vland's vaccines, said that, Vland had made great breakthroughs after years of R&D efforts in the chassis technology of animal vaccine antigen manufacturing, such as large-scale cell suspension culture technology, protein subunit efficient expression technology, and whole bacterial high-density industrial fermentation technology. Combined with the joint application of high-efficiency purification processes (such as ultrafiltration and targeted separation), immune enhancement technology, and new heat-resistant protection technology, Vland is able to produce highly competitive and cost-effective products, providing better choices for prevention of major animal diseases by vaccination in China.

Dr. Zhang Yan, Chief Scientist of Vland Chemical Veterinary Drug Technology Center and R&D Director of KDN Animal Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., expounded the path and direction of veterinary drug innovation, as well as the development status of veterinary drug companies after the implementation of new version of GMP. He also demonstrated the latest innovative achievements of KDN, including Toltrazuril Suspension and Compound Butafosfos Injection, injecting new vitality into the high-quality development of animal farming industry.

Dr. Wang Xiaolong, Product Technical Director of KDN Animal Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., analyzed the current status of major diseases in pig farming and the key points of prevention and control of strains of different virulence. For prevention and control of dust in northern China, he emphasized the importance of pig house sealing and air filtration system, and delivered systematic solutions for disease prevention and control.

Dr. Kang Zhen, General Manager of Weifang Noted Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., introduced the development ideas of Noted's traditional Chinese veterinary medicine: expanding the marketing of wild licorice crude extract, and developing more products with Echinacea (First-class new veterinary drug) as the ingredient, aiming to enhance anti-stress and disease resistant abilities of animals and reduce the harm of viral diseases to the body.

Session 3: Marine Biology

Professor Tian Xiangli of Ocean University of China shared the development of probiotics and postbiotics used in aquaculture. He put forward ideas and suggestions on the definition disputes, detection methods, regulatory frameworks, application basis, and evidence-based science of postbiotics.

Researcher Wang Lei of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared the characteristics, problems and technical improvements of main prawn farming models. In the speech, he focused on analyzing shrimp farming technology using recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), and put forward a variety of effective measures to reduce costs while increasing efficiency in shrimp farming.

Dr. Wang Lei, Technical Director of Qingdao Master Biotech Co. Ltd., started from the principle that the intestinal damage of aquatic animals was in essence the damage of epithelial tissue, and then introduced the big role postbiotics had played in the aquaculture.

Dr. Yuan Weiwei, senior product manager of Vland's plant probiotics, developed functional microbial agents in accordance with customer needs. Vland's M-H-R strain screening and identification technology platform was used to screen for optimum strains during the development.

Young Scholars Forum

Vland has established an R&D team of nearly 300 people led by 37 doctors. Many of them are young talents with solid professional skills and strong teamwork ability, gradually becoming the backbone of Vland's technological innovation forces.

As part of the conference, Young Scholars Forum invited 9 outstanding R&D personnel to share the innovative achievements they had made, including comprehensive microbial treatment for livestock and poultry manure, the application of intelligent computing in enzyme preparation research and development, RHDV vaccine development, and the application of yeast extracts in poultry production.