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On Thursday, December 2, 2021, the collaboration agreement for the establishment of Joint PhD Exchange Program was successfully signed between Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) and Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) from Barcelona, Spain. It is aimed at fostering exchange of PhD students and building foundation of larger-scale collaborative framework between SZBL and IDIBELL.IDIBELL is a research center in biomedicine focused on cancer, neuroscience, translational medicine and regenerative medicine, which is located in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, south of Barcelona. It is a CERCA Centre from the Catalan Government and a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona (HUBc). In 2009, it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the signing ceremony took place via a virtual meeting. Despite of seven hours of time difference between China and Spain, dozens of scientists, students, and staff from both sides attended the virtual meeting to witness this important event. The attendees from SZBL were Dr. Yun-Dong Wu (Executive Vice Director of SZBL), Dr. Yiqin Gao (Vice Director of SZBL), and Dr. Xinhao Zhang (Delegate for the Director of SZBL and Director of Human ResourcesOffice) along with other eight principal investigators. These eight principal investigators are Dr. Zhuobin Liang, Dr. Lei Zhou, Dr. Yu-Hsuan Tsai, and Dr. Zhiqiang Yan from Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dr. Xiaoyu Tang from Institute of Chemical Biology, Dr. Zhe Joe Zhang from Institute of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, Dr. Gang Li and Dr. Qin Peng from Institute of Systems and Physical Biology. The attendees from IDIBELL were Dr. Gabriel Capellá (Director of IDIBELL), Dr. Angel Raya (Coordinator of the Regenerative Medicina (RegenBell) Program of IDIBELL) together with other 7 principal investigators from Regenerative Medicine Program. They are Dr. Anna Veiga, Dr. Carolina Florian, Dr. Mireya Plass, Dr. Jordi Guiu, Dr. Alessandra Giorgetti, Dr. Meritxell Rovira, and Dr. Esteban Hoijman.
The whole signing ceremony was organized into six parts. Dr. Xinhao Zhang as the host of SZBL and Dr. Angel Raya as the host of IDIBELL both delivered a short and sweet opening speech to welcome all the present attendees. Then it comes to the most important part – signing – where Dr. Yun-Dong Wu on behalf of SZBL and Dr. Angel Raya on behalf of IDIBELL signed on the prepared agreements and showed signed ones to the camera, beaming with pleasure.
Figure1 Dr. Yun-Dong Wu is showing the signed agreement
Figure2 Dr. Gabriel Capellá is signing the agreement
Later, Dr. Yun-Dong Wu sent his kind regards to friends from Spain – quote “有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎!”(“Isn't it a delight should friends visit from afar!”) –and warmly welcomed Spanish friends to visit Shenzhen as well as described wishes to visiting them in Spain someday. He also highly acknowledged this collaboration and wished the best for it. Subsequently, Dr. Gabriel Capellá also said few words, quote “We’ve been longing for a while to sign this agreement. I am grateful to both sides for our willingness to begin a collaboration. It is important for us to become more international. We are happy to have identified you and you have identified us as partners for this new program…and thanks so much for that.”
Figure 3 Dr. Yun-Dong Wu is delivering a short speech after signing
Figure 4 Dr. Gabriel Capellá is delivering a short speech after signing
Following the signing part, presentations of two institutes were delivered respectively by Dr.Yiqin Gao and Dr. Gabriel Capellá. Then Dr. Angel Raya introduced the Regenerative Program as well as our collaboration program, and he said “…more than 60% of people (of IDIBELL) are from many different nationalities, more than 20 of them, including most countries in Europe and America but we don’t have people from Asia, especially from China, which has become one of powerhouses by medical research in the world. This is something that we actively want to address. And the signature of this agreement has stepped in the right direction. We are very happy and proud to be this part of exchange program.”
Figure 5 Dr. Yiqin Gao, Dr. Xinhao Zhang, and Dr. Angel Raya
The penultimate part is the Bilateral Academic Symposium where 7 principal investigators from SZBL and 8 principal investigators from IDIBELL introduced themselves and shared their research and potential opportunities for collaboration. For example, from SZBL’s side, Dr. Zhuobin Liang from Institute of Molecular Physiology delivered a presentation regarding “Develop enabling genome engineering technologies for stem cell biology and precision regenerative medicine”, Dr. Xiaoyu Tang from Institute of Chemical Biology first greeted our Spanish friends with “¡Hola!” in Spanish and talked about “What is Natural products” and related topics, Dr. Joe Z Zhang from Stem cell and Cardiovascular Precision Medicine Lab discussed “Applications of hiPSC-CMs”, and Dr. Qin Peng from Institute of Systems and Physical Biology presented the topic on “Visualization and Manipulation of Epigenetics in Single Living Cells”. Dr. Lei Zhou, Dr. Yu-Hsuan Tsai from Institute of Molecular Physiology and Gang Li from Institute of Systems and Physical Biology also introduced their research respectively. From IDIBELL’s side, Dr. Angel Raya first presented his stem cell potency group and his group’s main research lines covering “natural regeneration (zebrafish heart, neonatal mouse)”, “clinical translation of cardiac tissue engineering” and “iPSC-based human disease modeling”. Then he described opportunities for collaboration, such as “extensive expertise in human iPSC generation/differentiation/genetic manipulation”, “advanced culture systems (3Dbioprinting, organ-on-a-chip, large bioreactors)” and so on. Then Dr. Anna Veiga talked about “Barcelona Stem Cell Bank” and “Pluripotent stem cell Therapy” while Dr. Carolina Florian covered her research line on “Stem Cell Aging”. Later, Dr. Mireya Plass, Dr. Jordi Guiu, Dr. Alessandra Giorgetti, Dr. Meritxell Rovira, and Dr. Esteban Hoijman introduced their research groups and main research lines, publications highlight and opportunities for collaboration.
At the end, Dr. Xinhao Zhang and Dr. Angel Raya thanked the staff from both sides who were behind the scenes and made huge efforts to make the signing ceremony happen.
Figure 6 Bilateral Academic Symposium
Figure 7Speakers from SZBL
Figure 8 Speakers from IDIBELL
(Text by: Office of Human Resources, SZBL)
