Recently, the award ceremony and exhibition-exchange event of the 2nd "Chuang Qingchun" National Youth Innovation Competition for the Health Sector was held in Beijing. The project "Construction and Promotion of an AI-Based Integrated 'Screening-Diagnosis-Treatment-Rehabilitation' Innovation System for Early-Stage Lung Cancer," led by Dr. Liang Hengrui — a young backbone of the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Nanshan Scholar at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (hereinafter referred to as "the First Affiliated Hospital of GMU") — stood out from 3,632 participating projects nationwide and won the gold award in the clinical medicine track.
As a core partner of the project, ProteinT was deeply involved in the R&D and application of precision molecular detection technologies in the system, including proteomics, whole-blood protein testing and plasma NMR, providing important technical support for the key link of "molecular diagnosis" of lung cancer.
It is reported that the competition was jointly organized by the National Health Commission and the Communist Youth League Central Committee, under the theme "Youth Shouldering Responsibility for China's Modernization." It set up six tracks — clinical medicine, pharmaceutical products, clinical nursing, smart healthcare, public health and health management, and traditional Chinese medicine — and is an important platform for displaying and exchanging youth innovation achievements across the national health system. The competition collected 3,632 projects in total and, through provincial recommendation and nationwide preliminary and final rounds of selection, ultimately selected 39 gold awards, 79 silver awards, 117 bronze awards and 408 excellence awards.
National Gold Award: Construction and Promotion of an AI-Based Integrated "Screening-Diagnosis-Treatment-Rehabilitation" Innovation System for Early-Stage Lung Cancer
In response to the clinical challenges of the high incidence of lung cancer and the difficulty of precise treatment, the project built an AI-based full-cycle integrated "screening-diagnosis-treatment-rehabilitation" innovation system.
Under the guidance of Professor He Jianxing, Director of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease and academic leader of Thoracic Surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of GMU, the youth multidisciplinary team led by Dr. Liang Hengrui deeply integrated frontier technologies such as exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) testing, AI low-dose CT screening, proteomics liquid biopsy and intelligent surgical equipment, building a multi-level screening-and-diagnosis pathway of "non-invasive initial screening – imaging fine screening – molecular diagnosis – intelligent intervention." This achieves full-process digital-intelligent management of lung cancer from early screening, precise diagnosis and individualized treatment to intelligent rehabilitation, significantly improving early detection rate, diagnostic accuracy and surgical efficacy.
Relying on core technologies such as multimodal AI foundation models, federated learning, naked-eye 3D endoscopy and wearable monitoring devices, the project effectively breaks down barriers between diagnosis and treatment links, forming a closed-loop solution.
At present, the First Affiliated Hospital of GMU has implemented a digital-intelligent diagnosis-and-treatment pathway for lung cancer of "AI-assisted joint consultation (outpatient) – robotic precise localization (preoperative) – naked-eye 3D digital map navigation (intraoperative) – wearable device dynamic monitoring (postoperative)." The related achievements have produced more than 20 high-level academic papers, more than 10 national invention patents, more than 10 medical-device registration certificates and 5 software copyrights, and have been promoted and applied in more than a hundred medical institutions nationwide, winning multiple authoritative recognitions including the First Prize of the Science and Technology Award of the China Anti-Cancer Association, the First Prize of the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, and the AATS-ESTS Foundation Excellent Award.
ProteinT
INNOVATION FOR NEXT GENERATION
ProteinT is a national high-tech enterprise focusing on the field of precision-medicine multi-omics. As the lead institution of the Tianjin Clinical Multi-Omics Key Laboratory, it is among the first to conduct multi-omics research integrating "genes + proteins + metabolites," and its self-developed proteomics liquid-biopsy technology is at an internationally leading level. Core team members come from well-known research institutions at home and abroad, including Yale University, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Protein Sciences.
Its R&D pipeline covers common single cancers such as liver, lung, gastric, esophageal, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, as well as pan-cancer indications, and extends to major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions, focusing on key research directions including early screening and diagnosis, recurrence monitoring and medication guidance. The core intellectual property Umbrella™ clinical molecular database encompasses more than 100,000 clinical sample records.
ProteinT is committed to continuous technological innovation and the clinical translation of frontier achievements, advancing the development of precision medicine and exploring the infinite possibilities of human health.
