In 2009, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University set up an undergraduate degree program in pharmacy by integrating the advantages of medicine, biology, engineering, chemistry and other disciplines, and on that basis, enrolled students for the “Medical & Pharmaceutical Experimental Class”, with an aim to cultivate high-end talents in the field of pharmacy to meet the national strategic needs. In January 2012, the university decided through discussions at its administrative affairs meeting to establish the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and held an opening ceremony in November of the same year, with Professor Liu Gang appointed as the head of the department; to better meet the development needs of pharmacy as a discipline and make synchronous contributions for the early realization of the goal of building a world-top university at an early date, the university decided further to establish the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS). On December 25, 2015, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences was formally established, where Professor Ding Sheng was appointed as the first dean from December 2015 to June 2022, and Professor Qian Feng has been appointed as the dean since July 2022.
Despite a short history, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is strategically positioned to meet the major strategic needs of the state by making full use of late-mover advantages, focusing on transformation characteristics, and carrying out team building, talent training, scientific research, platform construction and external cooperation around the three directions of key biological issues in pharmacy, key technology research in pharmacy, and disease research and targeted therapy, with great progress made in the construction of pharmaceutical discipline, comprehensive improvement of innovation capability, and continuous emergence of important achievements.
In terms of team building, there are 38 in-service teachers in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, including 33 for teaching and research, 1 for teaching and 4 for research. Nearly 80% of the teachers for teaching and research have been selected into the national high-level talent program and the national high-level talent youth program, forming a talent echelon composed of strategic scientists, first-class technological innovation leaders and outstanding young talents, who become the firmest core of the team. In addition, the school has 82 postdoctoral fellows serving as the key forces of scientific research to provide strong support for the team.
In terms of talent training, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences currently has a total of 376 full-time students, including 100 undergraduates, 2 postgraduate students and 274 doctoral students. The school enrolls outstanding undergraduate students through the National College Entrance Examination and Tsinghua University’s Pilot Reform of Enrollment in Basic Disciplines every year, and enrolls outstanding postgraduate students by way of exam-free recommendation from the university and other universities and the national enrollment. In July 2022, the doctoral degree program in pharmacy as first-level subject was formally established, marking that Tsinghua University has formed an integrated education and teaching system of undergraduate degree, master’s degree and doctoral degree programs in pharmacy, and entered a new historical stage of talent training.
In terms of scientific research, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences has given full play to the role of a main force for basic research and a place of origin for technological breakthroughs by constantly strengthening basic research of pharmacy, tackling key technologies, accelerating the application of emerging technologies, and breaking through the bottleneck of achievement transformation. A great number of original innovations and core technology accumulations have shown strong application value, and are expected to realize an organized, institutionalized and large-scale transformation of pharmaceutical innovation achievements in a short period of time. The school will seize the historical opportunity to further reinforce the leading role and enhance our international influence and competitiveness in the journey towards becoming a powerful pharmaceutical country.
In terms of platform construction, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is committed to building a shared platform that can facilitate efficient and systematic transformation. The existing platforms include new target discovery sub-platform, high throughput screening sub-platform, computer-aided drug design sub-platform, drug preparation sub-platform, etc. At present, the Center of Pharmaceutical Technology, as the first public service platform managed and operated by a professional team, centering on drug discovery, screening and evaluation, has been open to universities and research institutes on and off campus, becoming an important support for drug research and discovery.
In terms of external cooperation, the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences always takes an open attitude to explore diverse cooperation modes. The school maintains multi-mode cooperation for talent training with colleges, universities, research institutes and enterprises in the United States and Australia; and keeps deep interaction in various forms with leading domestic and foreign enterprises in scientific research, achievement transformation and other aspects, including Simcere Pharmaceutical, Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, etc.
It is the choice of the times for Tsinghua University to base on the “two overall situations”, bear in mind the “great interests of the country”, and integrate high-quality development into all kinds of work, and it is the mission of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Tsinghua University to develop the pharmaceutical discipline with high quality. The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences will continue to develop firmly around “high quality”. It is expected that by 2030, the school will become more prominent in serving the national strategy, with our status and influence in the international academic field significantly improving, a better governance system, and a pharmaceutical discipline system to be formed with Chinese characteristics and Tsinghua style for a combination of health discipline groups to promote the construction of pharmaceutical innovation highland, and contribute the wisdom of Tsinghua University to the strategy of making China a powerful pharmaceutical country and the construction of human health community.
