Founded in September 2012, the Institute for Cardiovascular Science at Soochow University (ICSSU) evolved from two former institutions, namely the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and a branch of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases (NCCD) at Soochow University. In 2014, the ICSSU was approved as the Clinical Research Center for Cardiovascular Surgery.
The mission of the ICSSU is translational medicine research that aims to advance precision medicine for severe cardiovascular diseases. The research focus of the ICSSU includes stem cell and cardiovascular regeneration, immunity in heart transplantation, cardiovascular pharmacology, vascular injury and repair, genetic-based cardiovascular diseases, and cardiac electrophysiology. The ICSSU also closely cooperates with other institutions and has co-founded 2 research and development centers, namely the Artificial Heart Institute and the Vascular Biomedical Research Center.
Professor Shengshou Hu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, leads the ICSSU as the chairman of its academic committee. Since its founding, the Institute has been globally seeking independent principal investigators (PIs). To date, the ICSSU has recruited three distinguished professors (one professor of the “Recruitment Program of Global Experts”), two professors, and four associate professors. The Institute’s faculty has included or currently includes editorial board members or reviewers appointed for over 20 top international journals, and grant reviewers appointed for several national research funds both at home and abroad.
In the past 20 years, the ICSSU and its predecessor (the research laboratory of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery) have received 27 grants above the provincial and ministerial level, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Technology R&D Program, and the “863” program for a sub-project, with research funds totally RMB 60 million. The Institute has also won 13 research awards.
The major objective of the ICSSU is to develop a comprehensive platform for basic research, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases that is domestically first-class and internationally renowned. To achieve this objective, the Institute will insist on a development path of “production-study-research” integration while promoting a clinical translation of basic research, so that its research achievements will benefit the entire country or even the world.