On the morning of June 11, 2010, a signing ceremony for the second five-year’s cooperation program was held in Institute of Biophysics which marked a new phase for the cooperation with the presence of leaders from Institute of Microbiology, China Academy of Science (IMCAS), Institute of Biophysics, China Academy of Sciences (IBPCAS) and the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo (IMSUT).

In 2005, CAS and IMSUT cooperated to establish China-Japan Joint Laboratory of Molecular Immunology & Molecular Microbiology and China-Japan Joint Laboratory of Structural Virology & Immunology respectively in IMCAS and IBPCAS to promote the research level to deal with the emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, bird flu and AIDS. The joint laboratories provided a cooperative and creative platform for the research. In the past five years, both Chinese and Japanese parties conducted practical cooperation in training, academic exchange and equipment sharing and achieved fruitful results. Because of the good start, they looked forward to the second phase of cooperation.

In the signing ceremony, Li HUANG, Executive Deputy Director-General of IMCAS, Tao XU, Director of IBCAS and Motoharu Seiki of IMSUT made speeches and recognized the progress of the joint laboratories in the past five years and they said they would continue to support the researches by providing excellent researchers, facilities and so on. Mr. Yiqi JIANG presented the ceremony on behalf of Bureau of International Co-operation, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

After the signing ceremony, the 9th Steering Committee Meeting for the China-Japan Joint Laboratories was held and committee members discussed the second phase of cooperation in details.

The first phase of cooperation of China-Japan Joint Laboratories was a good beginning of the establishment of the laboratories, recruitment of researchers, equipment purchase, joint application for programs and academic exchange. Because of the success, both parties believed that the second phase would yield more fruitful results and make contribution to fight emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.