On the morning of May 18, 2017, ceremony for cooperation agreement of scientific research between the team of Professor Ma Xiancang and American Broad Institute was held at 8/F of East Building 1, marking a new stage of our hospital in medical research and mental diseases. A total of 7 people including Professor Steven Hyman and Professor Mark Daly from American Broad Institute, leaders and Discipline Directors from Xi’an Jiaotong University and our hospital, deans of 10 hospitals in Shaanxi Province and relevant scientific research teams attended the signing ceremony.
Professor Ma Xiancang, assistant to the President of our hospital, hosted the signing ceremony. Vice president of the university Yan Hong delivered a speech and appreciated the support from the team of Professor Steven Hyman of American Broad Institute to scientific research of our hospital. He hoped to deepen cooperation between the two parties, improve the scientific research of Xi’an Jiaotong University, add new powers for medical researches and increase the cooperation between Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center and top-notched teams in the world with new achievements through continuous and effective cooperation. In addition, Yan Hong also hoped to create a bright future for medical field by mutual efforts.
Professor Steven Hyman said that he would value this cooperation opportunity and strive for better cooperative results to build the silk road of scientific researches. He also gave Broad monograph Annual Report 2016 to our hospital as a present. After the engagement ceremony, Professor Huang Hailiang made a report of “Using genetic diversity from East Asia to improve the biological insight into schizophrenia”, which introduced research progress of the projects being executed in cooperation with Professor Ma Xiancang of our hospital, the newest major research results and future research program. High attention and research enthusiasm were aroused by the report.
Early before signing of the cooperation agreement, deep comprehension and interaction had been started between the two research teams at the beginning of 2016. In 2016 when Professor Ma Xiancang served as visiting scholar in America, he was invited to Harvard Medical School and Broad Institute twice. During his visit, deep exchange was made about project cooperation, medical research and talent cultivation by the two parties. Meanwhile, research topics about schizophrenia were started. In April this year, deep discussion about their cooperation was made by Professor Ma Xiancang and Professor Huang Hailiang in Beijing. Based on specific research projects and early results, the exchange about research was deepened continuously, which facilitated this cooperation finally.
On the morning of May 17, closed-door special meeting about this cooperation was made to summarize early cooperation and discuss expenditure, research facilities, talent cultivation and data sharing of cooperative researches in the future. After mutual communication, a consensus was reached in scientific research, talent cultivation and international exchange.
This cooperation agreement of researches marked that international medical research cooperation of our hospital in health field was stepping into the strategic situation of Belt and Road gradually. The following work would be of more strategy, initiative and innovation tolay a solid foundation for further cooperation and expand a wider, higher academic exchange platform for internationalization of scientific researches of our hospital in mental diseases.
