The National Laboratory for Screening Novel Microbial Drugs (NLSNM) is one of the five national new drug screening laboratories (centers) established by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China in July 1998. It is an important part of the "1035 Engineering" project of national new drug research and industrial development. The laboratory has been evaluated and accepted by the Ministry of Science and Technology experts group with outstanding achievements in November 2000. When the laboratory was established, Academician Zhen Yongsu was the director (1998.7~2009.3), Professor Zhang Yueqin and Professor Si Shuyi were the deputy director. Professor Jiang Jiandong was the leader in charge of the office during 2002~2010. The current director of the lab is Professor Shuyi Si (2009.4~).

The NLSNM has been supported by National Mega-Projects of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Those projects include 10th five-years National Mega-Projects of Science Research "Innovative drugs and traditional Chinese medicine modernization" in "high-efficient screening technology platform research and application for innovative anti-infection and anti-inflammatory drugs", 11th Five-Year Plan of National Major projects of Science and Technology "Major New Drug Creation" in “High-efficient screening and discovery technology platform for innovative microbial drug", and 12th Five-Year Plan of National Major projects of Science and Technology "Major New Drug Creation" in "Major infectious diseases prevention" in "tuberculosis targets" project. After 20 years of hard efforts and the financial supports of national major projects, the national microbial drug screening resource library and the innovative microbial drug screening system have been established. More than 78, 000 extracts of microbial fermentation products and 228, 000 pure natural and synthetic compounds have been put in storage for drug screening. More than 200 high-throughput and high-content drug screening models based on molecular and cell were constructed. The large-scale drug screenings of more than 7 million samples were performed. A number of excellent anti-virus, anti-drug-resistant bacteria and E. tuberculosis, anti-atherosclerosis, and anti-metabolic syndrome drug candidates have been obtained. It lays a good material foundation for the research and development of innovative microbial drugs in China.

The core laboratory of NLSNM has 17 researchers including 3 Professors in research, 4 Associate Professors in research, and 6 research assistants, and 15 master and doctoral students. More than 50 doctoral students have graduated from the laboratory. The laboratory has published more than 80 SCI papers in international authoritative magazines such as E Heart J, PNAS, ATVB and Engineering, and obtained more than 30 authorized invention patents.