In this commentary, I explain my perspective on the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI)/data science and biomedicine from a long-range retrospective view. The development of modern biomedicine has always been accelerated by the repeated emergence of new technologies. Since all life systems are basically governed by the information in their own DNA, information science has special importance for the study of biomedicine. Unlike in physics, no (or very few) leading laws have been found in biology. Thus, in biology, the "data-to-knowledge" approach is important. AI has historically been applied to biomedicine, and the recent news that an AI-based approach achieved the best performance in an international competition of protein structure prediction may be regarded as another landmark in the field. Similar approaches could contribute to solving problems in genome sequence interpretation, such as identifying cancer-driving mutations in the genome of patients. Recently, the explosive development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been producing massive data, and this trend will accelerate. NGS is not only used for "reading" DNA sequences, but also for obtaining various types of information at the single-cell level. These data can be regarded as grid data points in climate simulation. Both data science and AI will become essential for the integrative interpretation/simulation of these data, and will take a leading role in future precision medicine.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by a de novo coronavirus—Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)—that is associated with high mortality. However, the mechanism by which MERS-CoV infects humans remains unclear. To date, there is no effective vaccine or antibody for human immunity and treatment, other than the safety and tolerability of the fully human polyclonal Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody (SAB-301) as a putative therapeutic agent specific for MERS. Although rapid diagnostic and public health measures are currently being implemented, new cases of MERS-CoV infection are still being reported. Therefore, various effective measures should be taken to prevent the serious impact of similar epidemics in the future. Further investigation of the epidemiology and pathogenesis of the virus, as well as the development of effective therapeutic and prophylactic anti-MERS-CoV infections, is necessary. For this purpose, detailed information on MERS-CoV proteins is needed. In this review, we describe the major structural and nonstructural proteins of MERS-CoV and summarize different potential strategies for limiting the outbreak of MERS-CoV. The combination
of computational biology and virology can accelerate the advanced design and development of effective peptide therapeutics against MERS-CoV. In summary, this review provides important information about the progress of the elimination of MERS, from prevention to treatment.

The co-construction of the “Polar Silk Road” is an important way for China to participate in the protection, exploitation, and governance of the Arctic, and scientific and technological innovation is an important support for promoting the co-construction. China has a certain foundation in scientific expedition, scientific research infrastructure construction, equipment research and manufacturing for the Arctic. However, there still exist some problems such as a weak overall planning mechanism, inadequate investment, lagging in platform construction. Based on the white paper titled China’s Arctic Policy and the relevant principles for the “Polar Silk Road”, China should vigorously promote scientific innovation and humanistic research related to the knowledge, protection, exploitation, and management of oceans in the Arctic; and make larger breakthroughs in marine observation, sea ice research, biological and ecological systems, pollution control, response to climate change, shipping technology, and oil and gas development technology. To promote the scientific and technological innovation for the “Polar Silk Road”, China should strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation, launch international scientific programs, establish public platforms, and strengthen talent exchange and training.

Equipment accidents occured frequently in refinery enterprises in China, which brings great challenges on the intrinsic safety and reliability of the equipment. Equipment reliability design/manufacturing, risk management, and monitoring and control intelligentization have become urgent engineering requirements. This study reveals the connotation of intrinsic safety & reliability and supervision intelligentization of equipment, and clarifies the development trends of reliability design/manufacturing, risk management, and monitoring and control intelligentization technologies. It also proposed corresponding countermeasures for improving the intrinsic safety and reliability and realizing supervision intelligentization of the equipment. These measures were applied to the transformation of the main fan of a catalytic unit. Results show that this type of equipment transformation is conductive to the safe operation of equipment.