Establishing Standardized Biomedical Laboratory Technician Education for the Development of Biotechnology Research in China

Chinese scientists have been actively engaged in biotechnology research since the mid-20th century. However, biotechnology education, especially biomedical laboratory technology education, is relatively scarce in China. More and more cutting-edge equipment and techniques have been introduced into biomedical laboratories in China, but there is a lack of high-quality technicians to apply these advancements to scientific research. In addition, the traditional education and apprenticeship systems have been demonstrated little progress. To address this gap, West China Hospital of Sichuan University established a 2-year educational program for laboratory technology in 2006 based on the residency training program. The project integrates scientific methods into the research laboratory technician training in relevant disciplines, and has developed a systematic, scientific, and effective standardized training system to cultivate high-level and stable experimental technician team for the need of advanced laboratories, which has been demonstrated greatly improve the efficiency of biomedical researchers and laboratory facilities. In this article, we introduce the practical experience in establishment and development of a standardized training system for biomedical laboratory technicians to ensure the sustainable development of medical researches.