Source: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Written by: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

During the state visit to the UK of Mr Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UK’s University of Warwick on 21 Oct, 2015, creating a partnership in cancer diagnosis, care and research.

The MoU, signed by Professor Chao-Nan Qian, Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, and Professor Lawrence Young, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, focusses on four specific areas: nursing, digital pathology, anti-cancer drug development and systems biology. The signing ceremony was chaired by George Freeman MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences, in Mansion House in London. Prof. Chao-Nan Qian, Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, said: “We are delighted to sign this agreement today with the University of Warwick. This is an important moment in the history of collaboration between our two institutions, and will definitely consolidate and benefit our partnership in the future.

"We will be fighting against cancer together with our partner Warwick, to further carry out collaborating projects in digital pathology, cancer research as well as cancer specialized nursing, benefiting more cancer patients in both China and the UK.”

Mr Freeman said both Britain and China have long been admired for producing some of the world's leading scientists and academics, whose advances have improved and saved the lives of millions of people suffering from serious diseases such as cancer.

He added: "Cancer is the number one killer of people in the UK and China and like many nations we are in hot pursuit to find an effective treatment. Which is why collaborations such as those being announced today between Warwick University and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center on training and research to co-develop anti-cancer treatments are so important."

The signing ceremony builds on earlier work between the two institutions. Dr. Jin Jietian, a young digital pathologist from the Department of Pathology at SYSUCC, spent two months at the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire as part of a training programme organized by Warwick. Besides, a collaborating research project in anti-cancer drugs development for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma was carried out, between Prof. Zeng Musheng’s group in SYSUCC and Prof. Peter J. Sadler’s group in Warwick. In 2015, Dr. Isolda Romero Canelon and Mr. George Hughes, both from Prof. Sadler’s group in Warwick, came to SYSUCC to work together on this project with their partners.