Three Projects Hosted or Participated by Vland Won Shandong Science and Technology Awards

On June 27, 2025, Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Conference was grandly held in Jinan, commending the winners and projects of 2024 Shandong Science and Technology Award. Three projects hosted or participated by Vland won Shandong Science and Technology Awards, including 2 first prizes and 1 second prize.

The project of "Innovation and Industrial Application of Key Enzymes for Pulping and Papermaking" hosted by Vland won the first prize of Shandong Technology Invention Award. The papermaking industry is an important pillar of national economy, and applying bio-enzymes to this industry is the key to promoting its green transformation and upgrading. Regarding pulping and papermaking enzyme preparations, Vland has cooperated with universities and conducted in-depth research on the catalytic performance, stability and molecular basis of yield improvement of key enzymes in pulping and papermaking. Efforts have also been made in the industrial application of the enzymes. New technologies for precise mining and functional improvement of enzyme-encoding genes have been invented, and the coded information that determines the application performance of pulping and papermaking enzymes has been deciphered. The project integrates applied basic research, key technology research, production and industrial application, breaking the technical barriers of biotechnology application in the traditional papermaking industry and realizing the industrialization of key enzymes for pulping and papermaking. The pulping and papermaking enzymes developed by the project have been applied in 4 enterprises, generating good economic and social benefits.

The project of "Construction and Application of Key Technology System for High-value Bioprocessing of Aquatic Resources" in which Vland participated won the first prize of Shandong Science and Technology Progress Award. In view of the key issues restricting the processing and efficient utilization of aquatic resources in China, the basic theory, key technology and application demonstration research of high-value bioprocessing of aquatic resources were systematically carried out. Through technical research and integrated demonstration, the high-throughput mining, rational design and engineering technology of special enzymes for aquatic resource processing have been innovated, and special enzyme library for aquatic resource processing with independent intellectual property rights has been constructed. Breakthroughs have been made in the enzyme catalytic reaction regulation theory of aquatic resources and in the key technologies of bioprocessing of aquatic polysaccharides, proteins and lipids. With the progress, bioprocessing products such as aquatic oligosaccharides with specific structures, high-quality aquatic protein products, and functional aquatic lipids have been developed, realizing high-value bioprocessing and green and efficient utilization of aquatic resources.

The project of "Key Technologies for Precision Preparation of Marine Functional Sugars and Their Application in the Health Industry" in which Vland participated won the second prize of Shandong Science and Technology Progress Award. In view of current low utilization of marine resources, weak technical level, and insufficient development of efficacy, we have developed enzyme engineering, biocatalysis engineering, and biochemical separation engineering technologies, and achieved a series of key technological breakthroughs in the development and application of health products with high-value marine functional sugars as the core. A directional enzymatic preparation technology for marine functional sugars has been established, breaking through the bottleneck of the lack of efficient special enzymes and low production efficiency in the marine functional sugar industry; an industrial refining and purification technology for marine oligosaccharides has been developed for the production of health products with marine functional sugars as the core ingredients. Through the technical integration and innovation above, the industrial development of marine functional sugars and the creation of diversified functional products have been achieved.

With continuous and large-scale investment in R&D, Vland has established a stable and professional talent team and a complete scientific research system. It has constructed four major efficient protein expression systems of Trichoderma, yeast, Aspergillus niger, and bacillus, as well as corresponding large-scale fermentation systems, built a high-throughput screening workstation, and established core systems such as general high-throughput gene screening big data models and protein engineering. With key technologies, Vland provides core technology support for biological manufacturing, green solutions for food safety and also clean energy-saving technology for traditional industries.