IMCAS Launched State Key Laboratory of Mycology

Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS) launched the opening ceremony of the State Key Laboratory of Mycology (SKLM) on February 7, 2012.

Dr. ZHANG Yaping, the Vice-President of CAS, addressed that mycology is a traditional discipline of IMCAS and state key laboratory is the high recognition of its achievement in this field by peer scholars and professionals. After years’ of development, the State Key Laboratory of Mycology highlights the following research areas: diversity, molecular systematics and evolution of fungi; fungal community and interaction; fungal morphogenesis and molecular mechanism; fungal metabolism and regulation.

The history of SKLM can be traced back to January 1953 when Laboratory of Plant Pathology was first established. In December 1956, Institute of Fungal Application was set up on the basis of laboratory. It then merged with Beijing Institute of Microbiology to establish IMCAS in December 1958 which opened a new page in microbial research in China. It became one of the first open laboratories in CAS in August 1985 and was approved to be CAS Key Laboratory of Systematic Mycology and Lichenology in November 2001. Through a decade’s development, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China officially approved the construction of the state key laboratory in November 2011.