The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health (GIBH), an institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have announced the start of a collaboration project. The two parties will investigate and identify possible lead compounds for treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertention and fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva by using patient-derived pluripotent stem cells. Pulmonary arterial hypertention and fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva are two diseases that have been linked to mutations in bone morphogenetic protein receptors and for which no cure is currently available.
This collaboration is funded by the China Exchange Program, a funding program for individual visits or joint research programs aimed at fostering long-term research cooperation between the Netherlands and China. In the Netherlands the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is responsible for administering the program. More information on the program can be found here.