Zhu Pengcheng, founder and CEO of ATLATL Innovation Cluster, delivers a keynote speech at a seminar on how to make Shanghai a global biotechnology center on May 7. [Photo/whb.cn]

A new concept biomedical laboratory, AVIC + Lab, was described by Zhu Pengcheng, founder and CEO of ATLATL Innovation Cluster (a shared laboratory space for high-potential life sciences in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Science City), at a seminar on May 7.

"AVIC + Lab" represents artificial intelligence (AI), venture capital (VC), intellectual property (IP), contract research organization (CRO) and laboratory facilities.

According to Zhu, AVIC+Lab could be a feasible way to accelerate the R&D of self-developed biological medicine in Shanghai.

Zhu worked in Boston for a long time. After comparing the differences between Shanghai and Boston in biomedical R&D, he believes that although Boston has more advantages in core technology and cutting-edge R&D, Shanghai has certain advantages in industrial amplification and CRO.

The key to give full play to Shanghai’s advantages is to build a comprehensive platform integrating these elements.

"With such a platform, projects that used to need more than 10 million yuan ($1.46 million) of investment can be launched with only tens of thousands of yuan. This will greatly lower the threshold for innovators to participate in biomedical R&D," said Zhu.

Currently, Zhu is working on the world's first biological laboratory based on AI management in Zhangjiang.