From November 26 to 28, 2025, Executive Vice President Huang Jin led a delegation of West China Hospital, Sichuan University (WCHSCU) to Barcelona, Spain, to conduct a series of academic exchange activities with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). During the visit, the two sides jointly held the Third WCH-IBEC Precision Medicine Conference and officially inaugurated the "West China-Spain Center".
On November 26, the establishment ceremony of the "West China-Spain Center" was held at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia. Moving forward, both sides will continue to deepen cooperation in areas such as joint laboratory development, collaborative research projects, and joint training of young talents. Leveraging IBEC’s scientific research resources and international collaboration network, the center will serve as a key hub for WCHSCU to conduct research collaboration and talent cultivation in Spain and across Europe.
On November 27, the Third WCH-IBEC Precision Medicine Conference was held under the theme "Integration of Medicine and Engineering and Precision Medicine." Eighteen speakers from WCHSCU, IBEC, and the University of Barcelona engaged in in-depth exchanges and presented their achievements in cutting-edge fields such as nanotechnology, biomaterials, diagnostic and imaging technologies, tissue chips, and organoids. The discussions between scholars from both sides fully reflected the trend of deep interdisciplinary integration between medicine and engineering, laying a more solid foundation for future collaboration.
On November 28, the two sides held their first dedicated event for young scientific talents, the "WCH-IBEC Postdoctoral Seminar." Following the seminar, the delegation visited IBEC’s research platforms and experimental facilities, gaining valuable insights into its advanced practices in research management and laboratory operations.
Since the first visit to IBEC and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2023, both sides have maintained positive interactions and successfully organized the WCH-IBEC Precision Medicine Conferences in 2023 and 2024. This visit to Spain marks a new phase in the collaboration, characterized by platform co-development, institutionalized progress, and deeper integration. It also represents an important step by WCHSCU in actively implementing the university’s strategic plan to advance West China Medicine into the ranks of world-class institutions. The visit will help elevate international cooperation from academic exchanges to platform-based and systematic development, expand international training pathways for young talents, and enhance the global influence of West China Medicine.
