Latest news with #SunYat-senUniversity
South China Morning Post
10-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Microsoft abruptly cuts services to Chinese university, genomics firm
US technology giant Microsoft has abruptly suspended some services for a number of clients in mainland China, fuelling speculation about accelerating technological decoupling between the world's two largest economies. Advertisement Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University sent a notice to faculty and students on Tuesday night stating that Microsoft 365 services – including OneDrive, OneNote, and SharePoint – will cease operations on Thursday afternoon. 'Please log in to Microsoft 365 as soon as possible to retrieve personal data and files,' the university's network and information centre said in its email, which was seen by the South China Morning Post. A staff member on the university's IT help desk said it was Microsoft's choice to terminate the school's business account. The move comes just days after BGI Group, a leading Chinese genomics company, suddenly lost access to its own Microsoft services, including the Outlook email system and OneDrive cloud storage platform. Two employees of the company noted that the company was caught off guard by the sudden service suspension, which forced it to scramble for alternatives, including the emergency use of the WPS Office suite, from Beijing-based Kingsoft. The termination of service was first reported by Nikkei Asia. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. It has not made any public statements explaining the reason for the suspensions. Advertisement BGI Group has been a target of US authorities. Several of its subsidiaries have been added to the US Commerce Department's trade blacklist in recent years.
South China Morning Post
05-04-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
China's molecular ‘elevator' boosts immunity 150-fold against cancer, viruses: scientists
China has unveiled its latest weapon in the battle against cancer – the world's most powerful vaccine booster , capable of amplifying immune responses to tumours and infections up to 150-fold, according to researchers. Advertisement The advance promises two potential benefits: enhanced treatments for malignancies such as melanoma and liver cancer and improved vaccine effectiveness against rapidly mutating coronaviruses, such as the one that led to Covid-19 This research was jointly conducted by researchers from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, Fudan University and Liaoning University, and published in the journal Nature on March 27. 'Delivering vaccine antigens to CD8+ T cells [which are important to immune defences] requires three critical steps: cytoplasmic entry into antigen-presenting cells (APCs), APC activation and endoplasmic reticulum targeting,' said Wang Ji, a researcher with the Institute of Precision Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital of SYSU, who is the corresponding author of the study. Wang made the remarks in an interview with China Science Daily on March 28. The endoplasmic reticulum is often termed the cellular 'highway' that links sub-cellular structures such as the nucleus and cytoplasm. Advertisement Traditional vaccine delivery resembles something akin to guiding hikers to a mountain base. But the team's system SABER – which stands for STING Agonist-Based ER-Targeting Molecules – acts as a molecular 'elevator', bypassing cellular barriers to transport antigens directly to the ER, resolving the 'last-mile' delivery challenge. Experiments have shown that it functions like a dedicated 'courier', capable of accurately and effectively delivering antigens from the cytoplasm to the endoplasmic reticulum.
South China Morning Post
12-03-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China urged to prepare students for challenges of AI and ageing population
Chinese lawmakers and political advisers have urged the country's education system to make quick changes to cope with challenges brought by artificial intelligence and a rapidly greying population Advertisement These suggestions echoed remarks made by President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the ' two sessions ', the annual meetings of China's top legislature and political advisory body. Xi said on Thursday that China's education system must change to produce the scientific talent needed for the country's grand technological ambitions. Gao Song, president of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said Chinese universities, like their global peers, were teaching students based on outdated knowledge that could not solve the problems of the future in the AI era . Gao is also a deputy of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature. 'China and other countries in the world are still using past knowledge to teach current students to solve future problems. Cultivating students' creativity to deal with an uncertain future is the core challenge facing the current education system now,' Gao said in an interview published by Shanghai-based news site The Paper on Tuesday. He noted that three graduates of Sun Yat-sen University's school of computer science and philosophy department were on the core research and development (R&D) team of Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek Advertisement Gao, a chemist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said his university encouraged cooperation between departments to encourage interdisciplinary projects while strengthening offerings in core general courses such as AI and logic. He said the university would carry out AI-enabled R&D on low-altitude aircraft, intelligent deep-sea exploration, mining, transport equipment, and intelligent medical diagnosis and treatment.
South China Morning Post
06-03-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Prize-winning computer scientist Quan Guocong picks China post after years in US
Award-winning computer scientist Quan Guocong has joined Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou in southern China as an associate professor after years of study and research in the United States. Advertisement Quan, 30, is an expert in caching technology and network optimisation. He earned his PhD from Ohio State University and was a research scientist at Meta – formerly known as Facebook – in Menlo Park, California between 2016 and 2024. In his new role at Sun Yat-sen University's computer science department, Quan will focus on theoretical analysis and optimisation of distributed caching systems to enable faster-loading apps, smoother video streaming, and more reliable cloud services. According to his faculty profile, he will also apply machine learning to improve network and computing efficiency, optimise internet traffic, reduce delays, and enhance decision-making in large-scale systems. During his doctorate studies, Quan and his Ohio State colleagues won the 2019 award for best paper at the prestigious IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in Paris. Advertisement The paper, which explored ways of improving caching efficiency in unreliable networks such as wireless and mobile systems, was one of only three selected from more than 1,500 submissions, according to the Ohio State University website.
South China Morning Post
30-01-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Chinese scientists create mice with 2 fathers using stem cell engineering
Chinese scientists have used embryonic stem cell engineering to create the first mice with two fathers to reach adulthood, which has also revealed a possible way to enhance the developmental potential of embryos. While scientists successfully created mice with two female parents over two decades ago, achieving the same feat with two male parents has proven a challenge. The latest development was made possible through the targeted genetic engineering of imprinted genes. Those genes are typically expressed from only one copy from either the mother or father while the other copy is silenced. 'We show that correcting 20 imprinted loci enables the development of viable bi-paternal mice,' the team led by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell on Tuesday. 'These findings provide strong evidence that imprinting abnormalities are the main barrier to mammalian unisexual reproduction,' Luo Guanzheng, co-corresponding author and a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said in a journal press release. 'This approach can significantly improve the developmental outcomes of embryonic stem cells and cloned animals, paving a promising path for the advancement of regenerative medicine,' Luo said.
