Arboresnce

Shanghai: Minhang District of Shanghai Municipality has issued the following news release:

On October 28th, the "2025 Click the Future Science Ecosystem Conference" was held in Minhang District. Led by Professor K. Barry Sharpless, a two-time Nobel laureate in Chemistry and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous interdisciplinary scholars and industry representatives gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI and "click chemistry" in cutting-edge interdisciplinary collaboration and industrial transformation under the theme of "Click the Future." Participants engaged in multi-dimensional exchanges and discussions, from laboratory research to industrial applications, jointly outlining future development directions in fields such as next-generation drug development and materials science, contributing to industrial upgrading.

This conference was jointly hosted by the Shanghai Future Start-up Community, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Click Chemistry Laboratory, and Deepwise Biopharmaceutical R&D (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., under the guidance of the Minhang District People's Government of Shanghai and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It was also supported by several organizations including the School of Artificial Intelligence of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Future Industry Fund, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Beijing Deepwise Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jiao Tong University Suzhou Innovation Institute, and Shanghai Click Source Incubator. Academician Ding Kuiling of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Zhang Yuxiang, Standing Committee Member of the Minhang District Committee and Executive Deputy District Mayor, attended the conference.

Currently, China's pharmaceutical industry is at a critical stage of transformation from high-speed growth to original innovation. However, new drug development still generally suffers from long cycles and low efficiency in candidate molecule discovery. Meanwhile, the molecular construction process, which relies on traditional chemical methods, is generally cumbersome and time-consuming, making it difficult to efficiently explore a wider chemical space. Now, modular synthesis technologies, represented by "click chemistry," are deeply integrated with AI, leveraging their high efficiency and precision, and are gradually being applied to key stages such as molecular building block construction, compound library expansion, and lead compound optimization, providing an innovative technological path for systematically accelerating drug discovery. How to transform this path into a powerful driving force for industrial development has become a core topic of discussion at this conference.

During the event, Professor K. Barry Sharpless and Professor Ding Kuiling engaged in in-depth discussions on the cutting-edge theme of "From Simple Rules to Complex Biological Systems: Reshaping Molecular Discovery and Creation." "Click chemistry" technology serves as an excellent example and successful practice of this macroscopic theme at the molecular level. Proposed by Professor K. Barry Sharpless in 2001 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022 for it, "click chemistry" is based on the core principles of "simplicity, reliability, and efficiency." The appeal of this novel synthetic concept lies in its ability to effectively utilize simple, underlying chemical rules to navigate the infinite complexity of higher-level biological systems.

In addition, Professor Wang Yanfeng, Executive Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Professor Dong Jiajia, Director of the Click Chemistry Laboratory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, discoverer of the second-generation click chemistry SuFEx, and founder of DeepTech, discussed "AI for Science: From Algorithms to Industrial Applications." In recent years, the application of AI in the medical field has received increasing attention, and "AI-driven pharmaceutical manufacturing," as a key technological direction, is gradually "reshaping" the traditional drug development process. Among these advancements, the deep integration of AI and "click chemistry" seamlessly connects the "virtual screening" of intelligent algorithms with the "modular realization" of chemical synthesis, clearly outlining a future vision from digital blueprints to molecular entities.

During the keynote speech session, Mr. Wei Fanjie, General Manager of Shanghai Future Industry Fund, Dr. Zhang Linfeng, Founder and Chief Scientist of DeepTech, and Ms. Fang Nuozhou, CEO of DeepTech Innovation, delivered presentations on "Innovation Emergence: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem to Drive 'Chinese Innovation'," "AI For Molecular Design With A Few Good Reactions," and "Ultra-High Throughput Synthesis Platform Based on 'Modular Click Compound Library' Technology," respectively. The three speakers systematically elaborated on "AI for Science" from trends and methods to practices: by cultivating talent, building AI agents, and creating an ultra-high throughput synthesis platform based on "modular click compound library" technology, the aim is to break through scientific research bottlenecks and lead a new paradigm in scientific research.

In the final "Expert Roundtable" session, several experts, professors, and business representatives engaged in a dialogue on the theme of "Technological Innovation and Industrial Implementation: Paths, Challenges, and Opportunities." This roundtable brought together diverse perspectives to jointly explore how to translate technological breakthroughs into practical applications, confront the challenges in this process, and identify collaborative pathways to unleash the greater potential of the innovation ecosystem.

The conference concluded successfully amidst lively discussions. Participating experts stated that a technological system driven by AI for intelligent design and "click chemistry" for efficient synthesis is becoming a new engine leading a revolution in drug development. This technological integration will not only significantly improve R&D efficiency but also is expected to systematically accelerate the global discovery of innovative drugs, opening a new chapter in the development of the biopharmaceutical industry.