The School of Biology and Biological Engineering was established on the University Park campus of South China University of Technology in 2004. It has 15000 m2 independent facilities designed for teaching and research activities, ensuring sufficient space for the construction and development of the biology and biological engineering disciplines.
The school currently has 581 undergraduates and 619 postgraduates, as well as 74 faculties that include 25 professors and 25 associate professors. Among them, 98% of people hold doctoral degrees. A member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a Changjiang-scholar professor of MOE, and 3 chief scientists of National Key Programs for Research and Development (NKPRD) are teaching in the school. The school offers master and doctoral programs that cover the entire biology discipline of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Biophysics and Physiology, Pharmaceutical Biology, and fermentation engineering as a second-level field of the light industry science and engineering. The school has 3 undergraduate programs, including Biological engineering, Biotechnology, Biopharmaceutical engineering. In addition, the master's degree in biological engineering and pharmacy are also open for application. Biology and Biochemistry are ranked in the top 1% ESI globally.
The school operates international joint or provincial key laboratories in the research fields of Synthetic Biology and Drug Preparation, Fermentation and Enzyme Engineering, Enzyme, and Industrial Green Processing Engineering, Biopharmaceutical Engineering Technology Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology. The total investment of the instruments and equipment exceeds over 100 million RMB.
By the concept of innovation promotion in science and technology, the school has been closely tracking the significant needs of social-economic development in China by cultivating practical-oriented engineers for the future. The students who graduated from the class of Genome Science Innovation have published 111 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals as first authors or co-first authors, of which 56 were on the top journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, and their sub-journals. Biological Engineering and Biotechnology have been recognized as top national undergraduate majors, while Biotechnology was selected as the recognized program for strengthening basic disciplines plan. In addition, Enzyme Engineering was awarded as a high-quality national course. In 2020, the school was issued the National Innovation Contribution Award by the Industry Association of fermentation engineering, China. In the past 4 years, more than 500 SCI papers have been published, and 204 scientific research projects, including 3 NKPRD and 10 sub-topics of the NKPRD, were approved; until now, the total contract amount of scientific research funds have exceeded 120 million RMB. In addition, 123 invention patents were applied, and 108 were authorized.
Through the discipline construction under the background of the double-first-class initiative, the school has launched several convergent cross-research centers, including synthetic biology, intestinal microbiology, biological data processing, AI+ bioinformatics, etc. The school also expanded the in-depth cooperation with high-reputation institutions, such as the Guangdong provincial people's hospital, BGI TechSolutions Co., Ltd., and the Guangdong Institute of microbiology. In addition, the school's science and technology entrepreneurship work was strengthened by the partnership with the Guangdong provincial bio-industry association.
The school also actively carried out international-exchange programs with Oxford University, Imperial College of Technology, Edinburgh University, Rutgers University, and Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, strategic alliances had also been established between the school and other well-known domestic academic institutions.
