The Basic Medicine discipline at South China University of Technology leverages the university’s strong engineering background and the strategic location of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, with medical–engineering integration as its core. It is a key discipline serving national “New Medical Sciences” development and regional biomedical industry advancement.

Focusing on the healthcare needs of the Greater Bay Area, the discipline emphasizes interdisciplinary integration among basic medicine, engineering technology, life sciences, and chemistry. It is dedicated to cultivating interdisciplinary innovative talents capable of addressing frontier medical challenges and “bottleneck” technologies. As a key discipline under the university’s 14th Five-Year Plan, its development aligns with national strategies for medical talent cultivation, fills regional gaps in basic medicine doctoral resources, and provides core support for the upgrading of the biomedical industry and the advancement of healthcare services in the Greater Bay Area.

The discipline features six major research directions covering key areas of basic medicine: developmental defect disease models and drug screening; omics analysis and technology development for genetic diseases; mechanisms of organ premature aging and related diseases; pathogenesis and treatment of autoimmune diseases; molecular pathology, early diagnosis, and intervention of tumors; and visualization of tissue and organ structure and function. Relying on multiple national-level medical research platforms such as the National Engineering Research Center for Human Tissue Functional Reconstruction, the discipline has developed distinct strengths in novel biomedical materials, medical devices, medical imaging technologies, and tumor immunotherapy, forming a comprehensive system spanning disease mechanism research to diagnostic and therapeutic technology development.

The discipline comprises 83 full-time faculty members, including 26 professors. All faculty members hold doctoral degrees, 50 have overseas experience, and doctoral supervisors account for 30.12% of the faculty. It hosts high-level research teams such as innovation and entrepreneurship teams under the “Pearl River Talent Program.” Over the past five years, the discipline has undertaken 59 national-level projects and 39 provincial- and ministerial-level projects, with total research funding exceeding 140 million yuan. Faculty members have published 432 SCI-indexed papers, including multiple articles in top-tier journals such as Cell and Nature Reviews, received major awards including the First Prize of the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award, and obtained 25 authorized invention patents, with a steadily increasing rate of research achievement transformation.

The curriculum system highlights medical–engineering integration, offering core courses such as Frontiers of Medical–Engineering Integrated Research and Molecular Pathology and Therapy of Tumors. Supported by advanced experimental teaching platforms and affiliated hospital clinical resources, students have achieved outstanding results in national competitions such as the National Basic Medical Innovation Forum, demonstrating significant effectiveness in cultivating research practice and innovation capabilities. The discipline actively promotes international academic exchange, hosting an average of four international and domestic academic conferences annually and five lectures by overseas experts each year, providing faculty and students with broad academic perspectives and exchange platforms.