Recently, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced the awardees of Major Programs 2022. Academician Weihong Song at WMU, Prof. Xiong Lize at Tongji University, Prof. Cao Junli at Xuzhou Medical University, and Prof. Wang Dongxin at Peking University made an integrated application with the program The Precision anesthesia strategy for maintaining cerebral functional homeostasis in perioperative aged patients for the Major Program and got approval by the National Natural Science Foundation. This is the first NSFC Major Program WMU received, which highlights the increase of our original innovation capacity in geriatrics, brain science, and anesthesiology.

NSFC Major Program focuses on scientific research at the cutting edge and serves the major needs of the national economic, social, and scientific development and national security. It plans in advance to carry out multi-disciplinary research and comprehensive research and fully plays the role of supporting and leading the improvement of China’s capacity for original innovation in fundamental research. The NSFC Department of Health Sciences announced guidelines for six Major Program projects in 2022, with a maximum direct funding of 15 million yuan for each project.

Academician Weihong Song, academic vice president of WMU and director of the Zhejiang Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, Vision and Brain Health (Oujiang Laboratory), is the leader of the second project Molecular Mechanism of the Effects of Anesthesia on the Brain Functional Homeostatic Imbalance in the Aged funded by the NSFC Major Program. The funding period of the project is from January 2023 to December 2027. Previously, Academician Weihong Song’s project Regulation of BACE1 by TMP21 and its Effect on the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Diseases also received funding from the NSFC Key Program.

Central nervous system complications such as delirium, postoperative cognitive dysfunction, and perioperative stroke in elderly patients after anesthesia have become important clinical problems affecting perioperative safety and long-term postoperative outcomes. The Major Program project The Precision anesthesia strategy for maintaining cerebral functional homeostasis in perioperative aged patients will study the mechanism of anesthesia affecting cerebral functional homeostasis in the elderly, develop monitoring and early warning indicators and precision   strategies for anesthesia, and provide a new theoretical basis and intervention strategy to ensure the perioperative safety of elderly patients and improve  postoperative outcomes.

Academician Weihong Song is an internationally renowned expert on Alzheimer's disease. He has been committed to the pathogenesis of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly and identified the imbalance of brain function homeostasis after anesthesia as the key to perioperative cognitive impairment. Academician Song's research team found in previous studies that anesthesia surgery-mediated abnormal regulation of protein synthesis and degradation systems might be one of the key reasons leading to perioperative cognitive dysfunction in the elderly. This approved project will deeply analyze the influence and mechanism of protein homeostatic imbalance regulated by anesthesia in perioperative cognitive dysfunction in the elderly. This will provide a theoretical basis for the prevention of postoperative cognitive dysfunction and new targets for drug development.

In recent years, WMU has been devoted to integrating basic and clinical research and working on major scientific issues that are urgent in clinical practice. It has made active plans and arrangements in the application for major and key programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China through the implementation of multidisciplinary research and strived to achieve major breakthroughs in original innovation and key core technologies.