A RESEARCH team, composed of 10 undergraduate students from Shenzhen University, detected and proved the existence of seven kinds of allergens from dust mites after a four-year devoted research, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

    The newly found allergens discovered by the students, representing 22.5 percent of all known allergens from dust mites, have already been officially named by the international allergen naming committee from the World Allergy Organization (WAO).

    The person in charge of the team, a fifth-year student from the university’s medical school, Lin Jianli, was recently given a national award of technology innovation for youth and teenagers. There have been only two undergraduate students in Guangdong Province to receive the honor.

    Being recognized with the top prize of its kind in China, Lin attributed the success to Shenzhen University’s encouraging atmosphere of innovation, the professional guidance provided by the instructors, as well as his persistent pursuits in medical research.

    Lin was not a medical student when he first entered the university. He was later admitted to the medical school by going through several rounds of tough selection with an array of examinations and interviews.

    “I heard that teacher Liu Zhigang has instructed a research team at the medical school to win a national top prize and one of his students was accepted to follow Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, who is regarded as the father of cloning, so I wanted to do research under the guidance of Professor Liu,” said Lin.

    Making up his mind to follow Liu, Lin taught himself immunology, molecular biology, bioinformatics and other subjects that Liu teaches.

    “I always read research papers till 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning and always talked with Professor Liu after class, which impressed him and eventually he invited me to join his lab team,” said Lin.

    Under the guidance of Liu, Lin started to look into the molecular mechanism of the dust mite allergens during his holidays and spare time with his fellow students.

    According to Lin, there are about 200 million people in China who suffer from allergic diseases. Of those, the main allergen is the dust mite.

    The team has done research analyzing the bioinformatics of dust mite’s genes and finally detected seven new allergens. The research time has applied for two national patents already.

    (Zhang Qian)