China: health and microchip tech

From Godfree Roberts and part of a substack posting

• Shanghai doctors implanted a deep brain stimulator to control the symptoms of Meige syndrome. The patient, whose eyes, closed due to the disease for years, opened and her jaw, which had been spasming uncontrollably, returned to normal. DBS can treat epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, significant depression, and other disorders by electrically activating or inhibiting neuron signals.
• Spinal Cord Injuries: a new device helps paralyzed patients walk again. The inventors have open-sourced the data and 3D models of spinal nerve roots and will conduct the first clinical test by year-end. The study was published in the journal Scientific Data. 
• Autoimmune Diseases: the world’s first remission in patients with autoimmune disorders ( severe myositis and systemic sclerosis) using bioengineered donor-derived immune cells, raising hopes for mass production of cutting-edge CAR-T therapies.
• AIDS: Scientists have found a highly potent HIV-1 antibody, originally isolated from an immunized alpaca; the engineered nanobodies can achieve 100% inhibition against live HIV-1 and have a low risk of drug resistance.
• Monogenic Diseases: The world’s first IVF baby screened through a whole genome amplification method turned 10 years old in September. The method, MALBAC, has given about 6,000 families healthy newborns by accurately screening for 1,200 kinds of monogenic diseases. 

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In the US the House of Representatives passed the The Biosecure Act recently.   This marks a significant escalation in efforts to decouple the American and Chinese biotech ecosystems. The bill, which passed with strong bipartisan support, would prohibit federal funding for US companies that do business with several named Chinese biotech firms, including industry giants Wuxi AppTec and BGI Genomics.

China is leapfrogging the US and west by fast jumps in all spheres.  In the microchip industry (note from the Chinese mainland), three major breakthroughs were announced recently.

-The JFS Laboratory in Wuhan recently announced a major breakthrough in silicon photonics development. For the first time in China, they successfully integrated a laser light source with a silicon-based chip, marking a key milestone in the country’s optoelectronics technology. Importantly, these silicon photonics chips can be manufactured in China using mature materials and equipment, without relying on high-end extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that companies like ASML are restricted from selling to China.

-Another Wuhan-based firm, Taiziwei, has achieved a groundbreaking development in photoresist technology. Photoresists are essential light-sensitive materials used in the photolithography process of chip manufacturing. For the first time, a Chinese company has developed the complete ingredients and formula for photoresist production and owns full intellectual property rights. Taiziwei’s cutting-edge photoresist, named T150A, boasts an impressive resolution of 120 nanometers in optical lithography, with enhanced tolerance and stability compared to global competitors.

-The Chinese semiconductor start-up Numemory, based in Wuhan, has launched what it claims is the largest-capacity memory chip of its kind designed and produced on the mainland. The company recently introduced the 64-gigabyte NM101, a type of storage-class memory (SCM) chip that combines DRAM memory and NAND flash storage. SCM technology provides data centers with a storage solution that offers large capacity, high density, high bandwidth, and low latency.

The west wanted to isolate Russia and particularly Putin.  They also want to make war against China, using this little island called Taiwan.  Each time I update (as much as is feasible) on China’s technology, I know that we live in a new world and that laws such as the biosecure act, and hoping that Taiwan will rescue or supply a US microchip industry, is a shot into their own foot.