The Institute of Biophysics,

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

, based in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, focuses on biophysically oriented basic research in the life sciences. It was established by

Bei Shizhang Bei Shizhang (; October 10, 1903 – October 29, 2009), or Shi-Zhang Bei, was a Chinese biophysicist, embryologist, politician, and writer. He was an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was born in Zhenhai, Zhejiang province, on ...

in 1958, from the former Beijing Experimental Biology Institute founded in 1957. Xu Tao is the current Director. The main research focus of the Institute is on the fields of protein science and brain &

cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

s. The Institute has two National Key Laboratories—"The National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules" and "The State Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences". The establishment of the National Laboratory of Protein Science was given approval by China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in December 2006. Research in the field of protein science emphasizes the following areas: 3D-structure and function of proteins, bio-membranes and

membrane protein Membrane proteins are common proteins that are part of, or interact with, biological membranes. Membrane proteins fall into several broad categories depending on their location. Integral membrane proteins are a permanent part of a cell membrane ...

s, protein translation and

folding Fold, folding or foldable may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure * Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot *Abov ...

, protein interaction networks, the molecular basis of infection and immunity, the molecular basis of sensation and cognition, protein and peptide drugs, and new techniques and methods in protein science research. Research areas in the brain and cognitive sciences include neural processes and mechanisms in complex cognition, expression of

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

and attention, neural mechanisms of perceptional

information processing In cognitive psychology, information processing is an approach to the goal of understanding human thinking that treats cognition as essentially Computing, computational in nature, with the mind being the ''software'' and the brain being the ''hard ...

, and dysfunction in brain cognition. The Institute has received National Natural Science Foundation, '973', '863', 'Knowledge Innovation Program', and other major research grants, supporting outstanding research in a range of areas. The achievements of the Institute in terms of awards, publications, patents, and applied research maintain the Institute at the highest level nationally, and it has worldwide recognition for research in the

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

. Among other connections, since 2008 it has hosted an intensive course in macromolecular crystallography as a resource closely modeled on the course at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...

on Long Island, USA, and involving both US and Chinese instructors. The Biophysical Society of China is affiliated with the Institute. It takes responsibility for editing two core national natural science journals, namely Progress in Biochemistry & Biophysics and Acta Biophysica Sinica. Of these, Progress in Biochemistry & Biophysics is indexed in the SCI－E database. The institute has a library (1100 square meters) with 28,000

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s, more than 33,000

journals A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

, and 11

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

s. Library users can use the internet to access about 2,500 foreign e-journals. The Institute has a research team, with about 400 staff members, 500

graduate students Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

, and 60 visiting scholars and post-docs. Within the scientific staff, there are 89 Principal Investigators and three technical specialists, of whom 14 are members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 28 have received awards from the "100 Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" and 30 have received the "National Outstanding Young Scientists Award".http://www.ibp.ac.cn/kydw/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Institute Of Biophysics Biophysics organizations Research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 1958 establishments in China Organizations established in 1958 Physics research institutes