On September 27, President Yulong He, Vice-President Limin Zhou, Vice-President Changhua Zhang, Vice-President Yihang Pan, Director of Nursing Department Honglu Xu, Professor Weiming Zhu and Professor Ningning Li of Scientific Research Department visited the University College of London (UCL). The visit was organised by Dr. Li Huiliang, who is a long-term partner of Yihang Pan and Ningning Li Research Group and a permanent faculty member of UCL Medical College.

UCL is a member of the G5 Alliance and ranks among the top 20 universities in the world, with 30 Nobel Prize winners are among its alumni and staff. UCL medical school is the top ten medical school in the world, and its medical technology discipline ranks first in Europe. University College London Hospitals (UCLH), Royal Freedom Hospital, National Neurology and Surgery Hospital, National Ophthalmology Hospital, National Otolaryngology Hospital and National Children's Hospital, are all in reliance on UCL.

At 9 a.m., Professor Claudia Mauri, Vice-President of Education and Head of Department of Surgery, Professor Vivek Mudera and Professor Yulong He and his team discussed the cooperation between the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and UCL Medical College in medical, scientific research, postgraduate education and training of medical researchers. Professor Claudia Mauri expressed his approval and appreciation sincerely for the collaborative planning forwarded by Vice-President Yihang Pan. Ms. Liying Xing, a clinical system designer and senior registered nurse from UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, introduced the Foundation's organisational structure, management mechanism and career planning and training program for nurses. The delegation on behalf of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital unexceptionally expressed a high hope to cooperate with the Foundation in the future to learn about its organisational management. Subsequently, they proceeded to the ward of Gastrointestinal Medical Center of UCLH to exchange study with Mr. Borzoueh Mohammadi, the chief physician of the upper gastrointestinal tract, and then observed an operation at UCLH.

In accompany with Dr Kai Keen Shiu, a gastrointestinal cancer specialist, the delegation visited UCLH McMillan Cancer Center and attended CRC-MTD.

They then went to the UCL Red Cross building to exchange with UCL neuroscientists.

UCL Neuroscience is the world's second largest neuroscience research base in Europe after Harvard University, which has more than 450 independent laboratories with 26 Royal Society Fellows and 60 British Academy of Medical Sciences Fellows.

This symposium was chaired by Dr. Huiliang Lee of the Wolfson Institute. The attendance for this meeting was so honoured to have Academician Bill Richardson, Expert on Neurology and Gliocyte, Academician David Attwell, Expert on Neuroelectrophysiology, Academician John Wood, Expert on Molecular Pain, Academician Michael Hausser, Expert on Computational Neurology. Moreover, it was so fortunate to have Professor David Selwood, Director of UCL Chemibank, and Neurology and Professor of Drug Screening for Degenerative Diseases, Dr. Beverley Clark, Director of the Wolfson Institute and Neurocircuit Research Specialist, Professor Nicoletta Kessaris, deputy director of Wolfson Institute and expert of neurodevelopmental diseases, and Dr. Yuuki Obata on behalf of academician Vassilis Pachnis, professor of both UCL and Crick Institute and expert of intestinal and brain axes. Rewardingly, Academician John Wood proposed that UCL and the Seven Affiliated Hospital should jointly organise large-scale academic conferences in the future to enhance mutual understanding and facilitate better collaboration and connection between each other’s research centres and laboratories. Taking the advantages by each party, an agreement was reached on for the next step that substantive cooperation can initiate in gut-brain axis relevant research.