Nobel laureate to build medical laboratory in Shenzhen

Randy W. Schekman, a 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, announced Tuesday that he, along with two Chinese hospitals, would build a medical laboratory in the city of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province.

The Randy Schekman International Joint Laboratory of Medicine will be built with the Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University and Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated Bao'an TCM Hospital, primarily focusing on cell-derived vesicles, bubbles of liquid in cells, the Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University said.

The laboratory will focus on biomedicine and its clinical applications as well as new drug development, and conduct R&D activities on diseases including malignant tumors and cardiovascular diseases, stem cells and traditional Chinese regenerative medicine, added the hospital.

Randy W. Schekman, James E. Rothman, and Thomas C. Sudhof were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells," said the Nobel Assembly in a statement.

Local authorities plan to introduce at least ten Nobel laureates in natural sciences to build laboratories in Shenzhen.