The Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone. [Photo/WeChat account: hefeigaoxinfabu]

A groundbreaking cellular-level fluorescence guidance technology has been spotlighted in Nature, the prestigious international scientific journal. The technology was developed by Dendrite Precision, a company headquartered in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone. 

Since establishing its presence in the zone, the company has accelerated its precision optical medical R&D, enabling surgeons to capture real-time cellular images during operations for the first time. This latest advancement has elevated surgical visualization from tissue-level to subcellular resolution, surpassing the physical limits of human vision and millimeter-scale imaging, and ushering in the era of cellular-precision surgery.

The company's handheld intraoperative microscope EndoSCell, the world's only device enabling real-time in vivo cellular imaging during surgery, miniaturizes traditional large optical microscopes to one-thousandth of their size while maintaining 1,200x optical magnification. Approved as a Class II medical device by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), the tool has been adopted by over 40 top-tier hospitals, including Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, and used in more than 500 neurosurgical cases nationwide.

Hefei's innovation ecosystem continues to produce world-class achievements. In April, as OpenAI's image-generating model GPT-4o captivated social media platforms around the world with its Studio Ghibli-inspired aesthetics, Hefei-based HiDream.ai announced the full open-sourcing of its self-developed HiDream-I1 image generation model. Dubbed the "open-source GPT-4o", HiDream-I1 produces state-of-the-art images in seconds across styles such as anime, portraits, and sci-fi. Within 24 hours of release, it topped the industry benchmark platform Artificial Analysis, becoming the first Chinese-developed generative AI model to lead the rankings.

The zone hosts not only vibrant tech firms but also national strategic platforms including the CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and the Deep Space Exploration Lab, alongside over 20 R&D institutions such as the Institute of Advanced Technology of the USTC and Hefei Technological Innovation Engineering Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

This concentration of high-level research resources has endowed the zone with massive scientific capital. In 2024, it recorded 327 high-value invention patents per 10,000 people, ranking among China's top innovation hubs.

Looking forward, the zone is poised to strengthen the entire innovation chain, from R&D to commercialization, so as to nurture high-growth enterprises. The zone plans to increase collaborations with leading universities and research institutes to deliver transformative technologies and efficient industrial applications.

The zone will bolster strategic national scientific initiatives, providing robust tech support for advanced manufacturing clusters.