OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2016. Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that Dr. Shilin Chen has received an Agilent Thought Leader Award in support of his groundbreaking herbal genomics research using multi-omics techniques.

Dr. Chen directs the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing. The institute strives to identify the active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines and make new drugs.

The award will fund the use of integrated biology-including various multi-omic solutions from Agilent-to generate important biological data sets related to the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds from herbs, including artemisinin and glycyrrhizin, for example.

Through his research, Dr. Chen hopes to deepen understanding of the mechanism by which herbal medicines disrupt diseases and identify relevant biomarkers, which could then point the way to new drug discovery.

"We are delighted to receive an Agilent Thought Leader Award. It will allow us to incorporate integrated experimental and bioinformatics approaches to traditional Chinese medicine," said Dr. Chen. "Our group is focusing on dissecting and understanding the biosynthesis and regulatory mechanisms responsible for specific metabolic processes generated by natural herbs. We have initiated the herbal genomic project, and Agilent's innovative technologies and unique solutions can provide new tools and approaches to help us combine metabolomics and genomics in the study of traditional Chinese medicine. We are looking forward to working collaboratively with Agilent scientists to accelerate the discovery and characterization of new medicines."

"We are pleased to support Dr. Chen's efforts in the systems-level analysis of herbal metabolic processes using integrated omics approaches," said Dr. Teng Chai Hock, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group in Greater China. "Dr. Chen's research is a prime example of continued innovation in traditional Chinese medicine through the application of advanced analytical methods."

The Agilent Thought Leader Award promotes fundamental scientific advances by contributing financial support, products and expertise to the research of influential thought leaders in the life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets. Information about previous award recipients is available at Agilent's Thought Leader website.