On November 27, Prof. Ingrid Fleming, Member of German National Academy of Sciences, Member of the Academy of Europe, Chairperson of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Director of the Institute for Vascular Signaling at the Goethe University paid a visit to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Prof. Yonghui Zhang, Vice President of HUST, together with Mr. Xuanbin Qin, Vice Chair of Committee of Tongji Medical College, Dr. Jie Chen, Director of Office of International Affairs, Mr. Gang Chen, Director of Research & Development Office of TJMC, Prof. Weimin Wang, Vice Dean of School of Basic Medicine, Prof. Daowen Wang, Honorary Head of Department of Internal Medicine of Tongji Hospital, and Prof. Jiong Hu met up with Prof. Fleming to discuss over the future construction of Sino-German Laboratory of Cardio-pulmonary Science.
On behalf of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Prof. Yonghui Zhang first extended sincere greetings and heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Fleming for her long-term support to bilateral cooperation. He pointed out that cardiopulmonary diseases remain one of the leading causes of death worldwide and poses a great challenge to global public health. Therefore, it is of great necessity for universities and experts worldwide to strengthen collaboration in the basic research, diagnosis, and treatment in this field. HUST is willing to support CPS to further develop into a leading cardio-pulmonary science center featuring frontier research, precision diagnosis and top-notch talent cultivation, together with GU and CPI. He also introduced HUST newly-built Junshan International Campus which is to accommodate a number of research centers and platforms, presenting new space and opportunities for the development of CPS.
Prof. Fleming said it was a great pleasure to visit Huazhong University of Science and Technology again, and as always she was overwhelmed by sincere greetings and warm welcome from HUST side. She introduced that German Cardio-Pulmonary Institute (CPI) is one of the excellence clusters funded by the German research foundation and is a formal collaboration between Goethe university in Frankfurt, the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim. CPI just completed the reevaluation process and is likely to be funded again and indeed to grow. For the new funding period of the cardio pulmonary institute, CPI has identified a number of training and scientific alliance partners with which CPI plans to expand its international sphere of influence and to foster active exchange, and the inauguration of the Sino-German Laboratory for Cardio-Pulmonary Science was a first step in this direction.
Both sides further discussed how to move towards a real lived alliance that exchanges scientists and works in joint research projects with joint grants for funding to make a real impact on a very real and costly set of conditions. Both sides agree to carry out cooperation in scientific research, introduction of talents, mutual visits, student exchanges, joint training of postgraduates and other aspects.
It is learned that the School of Basic Medicine of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has appointed Prof. Ingrid Fleming as Guest Professor and Advisory Professor of HUST in 2018 and 2023 respectively. Thanks to the concerted efforts made by the School of Basic Medicine and Prof. Fleming, three university-level international cooperation agreements have been signed between the two universities. In 2023, BMS co-established Sino-German Laboratory of Cardio-Pulmonary Science (CPS) with Goethe University Frankfurt and Cardio-Pulmonary Institute Cluster of Excellence (CPI), based on which BMS was approved to build Hubei Provincial International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Cardiopulmonary Research, Diagnosis and Treatment at the end of 2023.
