Sino-Dutch centre for Preventive and Personalized Medicine (Sino-Dutch centre hereafter) published a paper titled “East is East and West is West; and never the twain shall meet?” (Science, 346 (6216 Suppl): S10-S12 .) in the custom publishing office sponsored supplement on “The Art and Science of Traditional Medicine Part 1: TCM Today — A Case for Integration” in Science on Dec. 19, 2014.
The article firstly described the difference between Western and Chinese medicines based on a more reductionistic focused approach and more holistic understanding of biology, respectively. These two approaches are mutually complementary and have the potential to yield a highly rewarding step forward. Exemplified by the study on rheumatoid arthritis by Sino-Dutch center, the article pointed out “Though East is East and West is West, the conceptions of the twain have met”.
Sino-Dutch centre originated from the Agreement on metabolomic study of TCM between Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and NGI/NWO. In Mar., 2007, vice president of CAS, Prof. Zhu Chen, visited the Netherland accompanied by Prof. Shengli Yang and Prof. Guowang Xu. On behalf of CAS, Prof. Chen signed the framework agreement on establishing the Sino-Dutch centre for preventive and personalized medicine with NGI/NOW and TNO based on metabolomics. This led to the establishment of Sino-Dutch centre in Leiden University and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS starting in July, 2007. (Text/ Peng Gao).