This collaboration started in 2000 with the creation of a partnership between the Henri Poincaré University of Nancy and the Medical University of Hubei (Wuhan). Since 2008, the progress of this collaboration has allowed the creation of a "laboratory without walls" between the Henri Poincaré University and the Medical Pole of the University of Wuhan on the theme "Tissue Engineering and Biotherapies". During this period, scientific collaborations were established between the Nancy group and several Chinese teams, notably in Beijing and Kunming. These collaborations were facilitated by the return to China of doctors and researchers who obtained their PhD in Nancy. They have led to fruitful results in terms of student and researcher exchanges, international contracts, joint quality publications, and the organization of several Franco-Chinese symposia. Hospital departments are associated with this research ensuring translational possibilities: Nancy-Brabois University Hospital and Cell and Tissue Therapy Unit (UTCT), Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, Calmette Hospital in Kunming, Blood Disease Hospital and Anzhen Cardiovascular Hospital in Beijing, a stem cell research center affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Medicine.
The research projects have been developed thanks to numerous contracts (PRA, PFCC, Cai Yuanpei, Xu Guangqi, National Natural Science Foundation of China ....). This important scientific activity led, under the impulse of the Consulate General of Wuhan and the CNRS office in Beijing, to propose to federate these different complementary forces by the creation of a collaboration network on the theme of regenerative medicine using mesenchymal stem cells.