Guangdong Hospital of Chinese Medicine visits KI
At the end of the summer, Karolinska Institutet was visited by the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine. The hospital is a partner in the Joint Research Base for Traditional Chinese Medicine (JRBCM) research project run in collaboration with KI.
As the summer of 2024 slowly drew to its end, Per-Johan Jakobsson, researcher at the Department of Medicine Solna, hosted a group of visitors from Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine. This hospital, which is situated in the very south of China, is a partner in a research project run in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet (KI) called the Joint Research Base for Traditional Chinese Medicine (JRBCM).
The project is an 8-year project initiated in 2020, and the meeting in August was the 4th Annual Meeting. The program included one open day, where interesting talks from Camilla Svensson, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Lars Klareskog, Department of Medicine Solna were mixed with presentations by scientists closely associated to JRBCM including Professor Ulf Göransson, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences at Uppsala University, and his research group. The second day was devoted to internal project discussions followed by social activities during the weekend. Such activities are important to bridge the geographical gap between groups within a research project, as well as to build strong friendships. It helps the productivity of any collaboration, and especially this one where communication is affected by language barriers.
More about the project
JRBCM is a very productive research project involving around 40 scientists at KI, Uppsala University and Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine. Using bioassay guided compound isolation, the project has structurally defined over 100 pure compounds from a selection of 19 plants used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment or prevention of rheumatoid arthritis. These compounds are presently being tested for biological activity and when present, their mode of action is being investigated using e.g. proteomic analyses or enzymatic screens.
The main research aims of the JRBCM project are:
- to understand mechanisms of action of herbal based traditional Chinese medicine used to treat rheumatoid arthritis
- to develop novel drugs based on the active principles of these herbs
- to prevent rheumatoid arthritis.
Text: Louise Berg.