Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has accelerated the implementation of the "innovation-driven development" strategy, adhering to the strategic priority of placing people's health first. The establishment of a national-level scientific and technological innovation platform in the field of difficult, severe, and rare diseases has become an urgent necessity. For more than a century, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) has consistently adhered to the close integration of scientific research and clinical practice, focusing on major scientific issues and important clinical needs that affect the health of the people. It has continuously tackled challenges, explored and innovated, and contributed to promoting the development of medical science and ensuring the health of the people.

In March 2023, approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, in collaboration with the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Tsinghua University, restructured the National Key Laboratory of Difficult, Severe, and Rare Diseases. Located in the Daxing Airport Economic Zone, the Daxing Campus of Peking Union Medical College Hospital serves as the primary core research site for the laboratory, with over 7,000 square meters of space that can accommodate dozens of research groups conducting high-level research simultaneously. It is equipped with a stem cell platform, mass spectrometry analysis platform, electron microscopy and light microscopy laboratory, supercomputing center, animal experimentation center, and biological sample bank, among other supporting facilities. The National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure for Translational Medicine at the Dongdan Campus serves as the secondary core research site, which was put into use in September 2021, providing open and shared infrastructure and research platforms.

The laboratory operates under a director responsibility system and explores innovative operation and management. Top scientists from the three institutions act as the backbone, leading teams to integrate multidisciplinary resources, uncovering the mechanisms of disease occurrence and development, searching for new diagnostic methods for diseases, exploring new treatment technologies, establishing new methods for predicting disease prognosis, enhancing the research level of difficult, severe, and rare diseases, solving significant clinical diagnosis and treatment challenges, cultivating the nation's urgently needed versatile talents, and becoming a strategic force in national medical science and technology innovation.

In the next 5-10 years, the laboratory will focus on major difficult and rare diseases to carry out original research to investigate the pathogenesis and advanced diagnostic and therapeutic technology research of five types of difficult diseases, the occurrence and development mechanisms and life support technology research of three types of critical and severe diseases, and the genetic mechanisms and precision diagnostic and therapeutic technology research of twelve rare diseases. It strives to scale the heights of the medical field akin to climbing Mount Everest. With comprehensive support and services, the laboratory provides a one-stop, cozy, and comfortable living environment, offering high-quality living services and support to researchers to alleviate their worries.

Under the new "1+N+X" development pattern of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the National Key Laboratory of Difficult, Severe, and Rare Diseases, the National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure for Translational Medicine, and the National Clinical Medical Center support each other, jointly creating an open, shared, and cooperative national-level scientific research platform, propelling scientific and technological innovation into a new journey. With a century of excellence, PUMCH is in its prime, with its people committed to national affairs and responsibilities, leading innovation, and striving with determination to build a solid foundation for a modernized Chinese health system.