From August 17th to 28th, the 10th Summer Academy of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) on “Infection and Immunity in times of COVID-19” was held online. Eleven students from the First Clinical School of Tongji Medical College of HUST, three students from Sun Yat-Sen University and four students from Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University participated in the online courses. The online summer academy was jointly organized by the International Office and Institute of Virology of UDE, and the Office of International Affairs, the First Clinical School and the Department of Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Union Hospital, marking a new stage in the cooperation between UDE and HUST.

At the opening ceremony, Tao Guo, Deputy Director of the First Clinical School of Tongji Medical College, Ulf Dittmer, China Representative of the Medical Faculty and Director of the Institute of Virology of UDE, and Ruimin Hu, Deputy Director of Office of International Affairs of HUST delivered speeches. They reviewed the cooperation and achievements of the two universities over the past 40 years, especially the profound friendship shown in the joint fight against COVID-19, and hoped that both universities could continue to work together towards greater achievements.

Led by Professor Michael Roggendorf, winner of 2016 Chime Bell Prize, 11 German experts gave lectures on "Infection and Immunity" and elaborated on the immune system and virus infection prevention and treatment from the perspectives of biomedical mechanism, clinical diagnosis and treatment, and disease prevention, followed by in-depth discussions with students. Professor Dongliang Yang from Union Hospital, Professor Jieliang Chen from Shanghai Medical College, Professor Mengji Lu from UDE respectively hosted the seminars, introduced the key research areas of each university and answered questions from the students. The students interacted frequently with professors.

On the 28th, the two-week summer academy came to a successful conclusion. At the closing ceremony, Tao Guo said that teachers and students of HUST should exchange more with UDE to strengthen the cooperation. Jie Chen, Deputy Director of the Office of International Affairs of HUST, expressed her sincere gratitude to the faculty of UDE and looked forward to continuing the cooperation and friendship.

The Department of Infectious Diseases of Union Hospital and the Institute of Virology of UDE have cooperated deeply on the basic and clinical aspects of viral infectious diseases since 2009, and jointly undertook national projects such as the National Science and Technology Major Project on Infectious Diseases and the Sino-German Joint Interdisciplinary Research Project (SG-JIRP). The Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity was successfully established in 2017 and approved as Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Infection and Immunity in 2019. In 2011, the long-term scientific research cooperation between the two universities facilitated the successful incubation of the "Infection and Immunity” summer academy, which was held once a year. The summer academy promoted exchanges of medical talents and sharing of medical resources, with 70 eight-year curriculum medical students participating over the past 10 years. In 2017, Union Hospital and the University of Duisburg-Essen forged comprehensive partnership and held three joint symposiums afterwards. The scientific research cooperation in the fields of infection and immunity, tumor proton therapy and hematologic tumor technology has been continuously deepened. UDE provided full scholarships to train young teachers of Union Hospital, and gave lectures and training sessions on laboratory safety, etc.

Written by: Aoyi Zhang

Edited by: Rong He, Tony, Yumeng Peng, Haikun Wang

Source: Tongji Medical College