On February 27, the “Meeting of Experts on the 2017 Top Ten Scientific Advances in China” was held by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China. This meeting released research achievements of the top ten scientific advances in China in 2017, which included the “TJU’s project of synthesis of redesigned yeast chromosomes” led by Professor Yuan Yingjin of Tianjin University. This is the 13th session of the award of “Top Ten Scientific Advances in China” since its establishment in 2005, and is the first award received in Tianjin.

TJU’s Synthetic Biology Team invented a rapid mapping method for genomic defect targets and precise repair techniques for co-transformation of multiple target fragments and also constructed artificial ring chromosomes, which overcame significant obstacles in this field.

TJU’s Synthetic Biology Team led by Professor Yuan published two papers on Nature, describing significant breakthroughs in the field of eukaryotic genome design and synthesis. The team also used chemicals to synthesize two artificial yeast chromosomes. The cooperation units of this project were Tsinghua University, the University of Edinburgh in the UK, New York University, BGI-Shenzhen in China, and BGI-Qingdao in China.

Yuan Jinying from Tianjin University, together with Yang Huanming from BGI-Shenzhen and Dai Junbiao from Tsinghua University finished this research project after 5 years exploration. The research results were published in Science, attracting great attention from experts and the media at home and abroad and were highly praised by journals, such as "Science", "Nature", "Nature Biotechnology", "Nature Reviews Genetics" and "Molecular Cell".