Membrane and neurobiology specialists from the University of Leeds have joined forces with their counterparts from China to form a major international research and teaching partnership group.
The Leeds team will co-operate with academics from the State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology, a Chinese centre of excellence made up of three of the country’s strongest research groups.
The formal arrangement builds on recent links between Yorkshire and China that included a joint symposium in Beijing.
The new partners will hold a second symposium in Leeds next May and will set up a dedicated website to help collaborative work. There will also be exchange schemes and joint pilot research projects.
Leeds said particular areas of interest include ion channels, which play a crucial role in the brain and contribute to chronic pain, cardiovascular and other diseases.