Sponsored by Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIMM) and Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie ‒ Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB, Belgium), ‘Sino-Belgian Collaboration Laboratory for Single Cell Analysis Technologies’ was official opened in the afternoon of April 12, 2019 at the Chinese National Compound Library (CNCL). This joint laboratory intends to share resources, technologies, talents and projects through a network mechanism with the spirit of open innovation. The first two sites include the National Center for Drug Screening (NCDS) and Pudong Hospital affiliated to Fudan University.

Jian Zhao (Deputy Director of SIMM), Bo Yu (President of Pudong Hospital), Jo Bury (Managing Director of VIB) and Boerge Diderichsen (Strategic Advisor of VIB) unveiled two nameplates of the collaboration laboratory. It is informed that the Chinese parties will use this platform to comprehensively operate with VIB, a world leader in single cell analysis technologies, thereby making Shanghai a hub of this cutting-edge technology development and application to promote precision medicine.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Ming-Wei Wang, Director of NCDS, followed by a tour of the joint laboratory located in the 2nd floor of CNCL. Representatives from SIMM, Pudong Hospital and VIB as well as journalists from 14 national and local news agencies participated in the event.