Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Southeast University

Founded in 1940, the Department of Medical Laboratory Science at Southeast University has a long-standing history and a strong academic foundation. In 2001, the discipline was approved to confer master’s degrees in Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics, and in 2012, it obtained authorization to confer doctoral degrees. The Department has since established a comprehensive talent cultivation system spanning bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral education.There are currently five doctoral supervisors, twelve master’s supervisors, and twelve laboratory physiciansin thedepartment. Relying on the School of Medicine of Southeast University and Zhongda Hospital affiliated with Southeast University, the Department implements an integrated talent cultivation model characterized by university-hospital collaboration and department-clinical laboratory integration, developing a teaching system centered on strengthening clinical practice, enhancing professional skills, and improving post-specific competency.As a National First-Class Undergraduate Programconstruction base, the Department remains committed to student-centered development and continues to cultivate high-quality medical laboratory professionals at undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. In recent years, both the degree conferral rate and employment rate of graduates have remained above 99%. Most of the graduates have pursued further study at domestic “Double First-Class” universities or disciplines, while some have continued their education at renowned overseas universities. The overall rate of further study has reached 32.9%. Graduates serve in medical, healthcare, research, and industrial institutions across China; approximately 76% work in hospitals, among whom 83.5% are employed by tertiary hospitals. These outcomes fully demonstrate the quality of talent cultivation and the strong social recognition of the program.In 2024, Southeast University took the lead nationally in launching a dual bachelor’s degree program in “Medical Laboratory Technology+ Biomedical Engineering.” Guided by the educational philosophy of “integrating medicine, science, and engineering while strengthening industry-education collaboration,” the program integrates the advantageous platform resources of two National First-Class Undergraduate Programs: Medical Laboratory Technology and Biomedical Engineering. By breaking down traditional disciplinary boundaries and reconstructing an interdisciplinary curriculum system, the program aims to cultivate innovative and interdisciplinary leading talents with strong professional ethics and social responsibility, solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills in both medical laboratory science and biomedical engineering, and the ability to apply biomedical engineering principles and methods to solve problems in laboratory medicine.Meanwhile, the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Zhongda Hospital affiliated with Southeast University is a Jiangsu Provincial Key Medical Discipline Construction Unit, a Jiangsu Provincial Clinical Key Specialty, and an ISO 15189accredited laboratory. It provides high-level support for talent cultivation, clinical practice, and research translation within the Department.In recent years, the Department has carried out research in areas including molecular and point-of-care detection of pathogenic microorganisms, nanobiotechnology and targeted delivery, biomarker discovery and application for major diseases related to metabolic disorders and infections, molecular diagnosis of tumors, molecular immunology, and clinical multi-omics cohorts. It has established high-level research platforms for high-throughput sequencing, metabolomics/proteomics/mass spectrometry-based multi-omics, molecular translational research, and applied translation, forming an innovation chain that spans basic research, technology development, and clinical application.Up till now, the Department has undertaken more than 20 national, provincial, and municipal research projects, received four provincial-level second prizes or above for scientific and technological achievements, published over 100 SCI-indexed papers as first or corresponding authors, obtained more than 40 authorized patents, and completed four technology transfer projects. Among these achievements, the “series of rapid nucleic acid detection kits for pathogenic microorganisms” achieved a technology transfer value of RMB 117 million. The SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid rapid self-test kit and monkeypox virus nucleic acid detection kit developed by the team have obtained CE certification in the European Union, highlighting the Department’s comprehensive strengths in technological innovation, achievement translation, and service to public health needs in laboratory medicine.At present, the discipline is advancing toward an integrated development pathway that emphasizes clinical leadership, basic innovation, and translational application.