Beijing Visual Science and Translational Eye Research Institute Established at Tsinghua University

Beijing Visual Science and Translational Eye Research Institute (BERI) was established on October 26th, 2024 as a partnership between Tsinghua University and the Beijing Municipal Government. Wong Tien Yin, Vice Provost of Tsinghua University and Senior Vice-Chancellor of Tsinghua Medicine, serves as BERI's Founding Director and Chief Scientist.

Zhong Dongbo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Municipal Health Commission, Zeng Rong and Wang Hongwei, Vice Presidents of Tsinghua University, and Dong Jiahong, President of Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital(BTCH) and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (online), attended the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was moderated by Zhou Yuehong, Secretary of the Party Committee of BTCH.

In his remarks, Zhong Dongbo mentioned that Beijing and Tsinghua University have a long-standing tradition of collaborative partnerships, and the establishment of the BERI represents another strategic initiative in the new era of health collaborations. The establishment aims to foster a deep partnership model between universities and medical institutions, driving the development of precise and efficient prevention and treatment for major eye diseases, thereby improving clinical outcomes in eye care.

Zeng Rong pointed out that the establishment of the center will inject new vitality and impetus into the medical development of Tsinghua University. The university will also take advantage of talent training, scientific research and interdisciplinary research to support the development of the center, promote it to become an international leading research center in the field of visual science, and produce more excellent scientific research results.

Dong Jiahong said that BERI represents another significant milestone in cooperation between Tsinghua University and Beijing in the fields of medical science and artificial intelligence. In the future, the hospital will fully support BERI in achieving greater breakthroughs in medical and artificial intelligence innovation.

Wang Hongwei stated that as a significant development sector at Tsinghua University, medical research has entered a high-quality development phase. We hope that BERI can fully leverage Tsinghua University's advantages in information technology, artificial intelligence, and big data analysis to build an efficient research and clinical translation platform. This will bring new dynamism to medical research in Beijing and nationwide.

Wong Tien Yin pointed out that BERI aims to become the world's leading center for visual scientific research and translational medicine. Building on the basic scientific discovery and innovation strengths of Tsinghua University, BERI will be a model platform for translational medicine, to accelerate the application of basic scientific discoveries to the clinical space and keeping focus on the most important health challenges.

BERI has established strategic partnerships with several leading global research institutions, focusing on conducting cutting-edge global research with significant clinical impact. At the conference, Zhong Dongbo, Zeng Rong, Professor Andrew Yao, Chinese Academy of Sciences' Academician and Dean of College of AI at Tsinghua University, along with Wong Tien Yin and Zhou Yuehong, jointly presented the International Strategic Advisory Committee experts with their credentials.

BERI’s initial group of faculty is composed from a large number of interdisciplinary disciplines such as optics, neuroscience, pharmacy, materials science, information science, digital medicine, artificial intelligence, ophthalmology, etc., and focus on four key directions to carry out research, namely, the creation of an internationally leading big data-driven intelligent ophthalmology innovation center, an ophthalmic equipment innovation and development center, an ophthalmic drug research and translational center, and an advanced ophthalmic materials research and development center.

Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital and Singapore Eye Research Institute also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in training, research and in-depth international exchanges in medicine.