Chinese data map of TCM pulse vision

"Prevent the disease first, and prevent the disease from deteriorating" is an important concept of traditional Chinese medicine.

On November 3, the official website of the National Natural Science Foundation of China issued a project guide saying that in the next three years, it will specially fund research related to "preventive disease" with a total funding of 15 million yuan to establish a new paradigm for Chinese medicine scientific research.

The name of the special project is "The Biological Basis and Mathematical Characterization of 'No Disease'", the research period of the project is "January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2025", and each funding amount is about 3 million yuan. The project application reception time is from November 27, 2022 to 16:00 on December 4.

The three major research directions to be funded are: clarifying the biological basis of the "preventive" state; constructing a mathematical model of the common law representation of the "preventing" state; and promoting the clinical verification and application of the "preventing" representation system.

According to the project guide, in order to promote the inheritance, innovation and development of traditional Chinese medicine , the National Natural Science Foundation of China set up the above-mentioned special projects in the cross-integration section, taking the "preventive" state of major diseases as the research object, using biology, mathematics, artificial intelligence and other multi-disciplinary methods. Interdisciplinary research methods reveal the biological principle of the occurrence of "preventive disease", build a mathematical model of the critical state of "prevented disease", and establish an early warning system for "prevented disease", in order to understand the mechanism of disease occurrence, predict the occurrence of disease, develop disease prevention and New technologies for diagnosis and treatment provide a theoretical basis. In addition, the "not diseased" state is multidimensional, dynamic, systematic, complex and has significant individual differences. However, the biological basis for the occurrence and development of "no disease" is still unclear, and there is a lack of objective indicators that can be quantitatively characterized.

The scientific goal of this special project is to focus on the "sub-health" state in the early stage of major diseases, to clarify the biological basis of "pre-disease", to construct a mathematical system that characterizes the common laws of "pre-disease" state, and to clearly and quantitatively characterize the "pre-disease" state. Through clinical verification, the diagnostic methods and intervention methods of the "preventive" state are formed, so as to realize the accurate diagnosis of "prevented" and early warning of the disease, and establish a new paradigm of traditional Chinese medicine scientific research .

The project guide states that postdoctoral researchers in the station, those who are studying for a postgraduate degree, those who do not have a work unit, or who work in a unit other than the supporting unit shall not apply as applicants.

The section "Elucidating the Biological Basis of the 'Not Diseased' State" in the research directions to be funded in the project guidelines requires the use of biological, informatics and other methods, combined with macroscopic sign information and biological sample detection, to study the development of "preventive disease". The evolution process and internal laws, identify the macroscopic sign pattern, microscopic key molecules and their complex networks of the "preventive" state, and systematically establish the "preventive" critical state and the "preventive" - "already sick" development process biomarkers Spectrogram, identify the key factors in the progression from "not sick" to "already sick" state and clarify the relevant molecular mechanisms, and interpret the integrated biological basis of "not sick" from multiple dimensions.

The section "Constructing a Mathematical Model for the Representation of the Common Laws of the 'Not Diseased' State" in the research direction to be funded in the project guide requires that, based on the multi-dimensional dynamic data of the "not diseased" state, discover the relationship between the macroscopic signs and the changes of the microscopic state of the "not diseased" state. Mapping relationship, establish a macro-micro quantification method for the "preventive" state, construct a dynamic network model representing the "preventive" state, develop a mathematical theory of critical slowdown, describe the "preventive" critical state before the system becomes unstable, establish "Not sick" - "already sick" transformation network motif database, revealing the common law of "not sick" critical transition.

The section "Promoting the Clinical Validation and Application of the 'Not Diseased' Representation System" in the research direction to be funded in the project guidelines requires the development of intelligent intelligence based on the "not diseased" state clinical cohort and multi-omics database. Diagnosis and early warning models, verify the sensitivity and specificity of clinical models, innovate intervention methods for the "preventive" state, and establish a new system for the diagnosis and treatment of major diseases.

The project guideline requires that the research content of the application should include all the funding directions of the project guideline, condensed and clear scientific issues, with significant cross-cutting characteristics and unique research paradigms. For related questions, please consult the Division III of Interdisciplinary Science, Department of Interdisciplinary Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China.