On June 29, Director Yao Ruyu and Deputy Director Qian Jie led a delegation to visit Si-CATTM, the Applied Thai Traditional Medicine Center at Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University in Thailand. They held academic discussions and toured research platforms, covering key topics including characteristic medicinal plants, modernization of traditional medicine, and translational clinical research using multi-omics technology. The event strengthened the foundation for joint research on natural medicines between China and Thailand.
During the discussion, Professor Pravit Akarasereenont, Director of Si-CATTM, delivered a welcome speech. He introduced the center’s status as a WHO Collaborating Center for Traditional Medicine, and shared its progress and experience in passing down Thai medical theories, standardizing herbal medicine, promoting specialized physical therapy, training international talent, and conducting evidence-based medical research.
Deputy Director Qian Jie presented the research layout of KIB, its conservation of distinctive medicinal plant resources, discovery of natural products, and strengths in ethnic medicine research. Director Yao Ruyu explained HPRD LAB’s core mission: to conduct cross-border biological resource research and advance the standardization, modernization and industrialization of traditional medicine. He outlined the lab’s research platforms, ongoing projects, and the latest updates on China-Thailand joint research programs. The two sides reached multiple cooperation agreements on analyzing herbal compound mechanisms, joint multi-omics research, clinical efficacy evaluation, and joint talent training.
After the forum, the delegation visited five core facilities: the Siriraj Medical History Museum, Siriraj Systems Pharmacology Lab (SiSP), Si-CATTM, Siriraj Metabolomics and Phenomics Center (SiMPC), and Siriraj Clinical Research Institute (SICRES). At the medical history museum, the team learned about the full development of Thai traditional medicine, ancient diagnosis and treatment techniques, historical use of medicinal plants, and the cultural inheritance system of traditional Thai medicine, gaining deep insight into how Thai medical theories integrate with modern medical advances. Later, the delegation observed Thailand’s complete research and translation pipeline—from tracing ancient medical texts and analyzing herbal ingredients, to systematic pharmacological research and standardized GCP clinical trials. They investigated the advanced technologies and mature systems of each platform for multi-omics testing, network pharmacology modeling, new herbal drug development, and clinical evidence verification.
This overseas visit built an efficient communication channel for academic exchanges on traditional Chinese and Thai medicine. It delivered all-round exchanges covering traditional medical culture, basic research and clinical applications. The event laid a solid groundwork for future joint research projects, shared high-quality platform resources and deeper cross-border academic cooperation. It also strongly supports HPRD LAB’s continued work on innovative utilization of Southeast Asian medicinal plant resources and the modernization of traditional medicine.
Scene of the academic meeting
Yao Ruyu delivers a special presentation
Tour of research laboratory platforms
Group photo