Former Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Chemistry Visits Taiwan to Focus on AI Glycoscience and Cancer Precision Medicine

Sven Lidin, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Chemistry and president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, visited Taiwan! Academia Sinica said today (29th) that Li Ding visited Academia Sinica from October 25 to 28 and communicated with Dean Chen Jianren and domestic academic and research leaders, focusing on glycoscience combined with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, proteomics and cancer precision medicine, and exploring opportunities for scientific research cooperation between Taiwan and Switzerland.

Lidin is a professor of inorganic chemistry at Lund University in Sweden, specializing in intermetallic compounds and crystal structure analysis. He was the chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Chemistry and took over as president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in July 2025. The institute is responsible for selecting the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry and Economics.

The meeting included former Dean Weng Qihui, former National Taiwan University President Yang Panchi, National Taiwan University President Chen Wenwen, as well as National Development Council Chairman Ye Jun-hsien, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Education Liu Guowei, and National Science Council Vice Chairman Su Zhengang. During his visit to Taiwan, Li Ding also visited the National Taiwan University School of Science to learn about Taiwan’s higher education and basic scientific research achievements.

Weng Qihui and Hong Shangcheng, academician of Academia Sinica, introduced the Glycoscience Center to be jointly established by Academia Sinica and Tsinghua University, which will integrate chemical synthesis, mass spectrometry sequencing, high-performance computing and AI technology to promote automated synthesis of sugars, glycoproteins and glycolipids.

Weng Qihui pointed out that sugars on the cell surface are closely related to viruses, bacterial infections and cancer metastasis. Related technologies can help develop broadly effective vaccines and cancer-targeted drugs. The research team has significantly improved the effectiveness of antibodies against breast cancer cells by adjusting antibody sugar chains.

Yang Panchi introduced the National Proteosome and Multibody AI Innovation Center, which will be co-founded by Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. It will integrate resources such as Taiwan’s Human Biodatabase, REVEAL long-term generation research, and Taiwan’s Cancer Moonshot Program to plan and construct proteosome resources for the Asian population to promote disease risk prediction and early detection.

Lidin affirmed the advantages of Taiwan's medical system, biological database and computing resources, and suggested that cross-national protein and genetic background comparisons be conducted with the Nordic ethnic groups to deepen the understanding of disease risks of different ethnic groups.

Chen Jianren said that he hopes that through this exchange, Taiwan and Switzerland will expand cooperation in basic science, cross-field research, and the cultivation of young scientific research talents, and strengthen the connection between Taiwan and international academic networks.