On the afternoon of February 10th, the Launching Ceremony of the Sino-Italian Cooperation National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Project was held at the Shenzhen Blood Center. The project focuses on " Development of diagnostic tools to assess population susceptibility to viral infections and related disease severity ". The project was jointly proposed by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, the Shenzhen Blood Center, and the Monoclonal Antibody Discovery (MAD) LAB - Toscana Life Sciences, and is one of the international (regional) cooperation and exchange projects of the NSFC.

| Partners are signing the cooperation assignment

|Director of Partners, Ning Li (L) and Diana Boraschi (R)

During the ceremony, the director of the Shenzhen Blood Center, Ning Li, introduced the overview of the center, as well as its work on voluntary blood donation and blood research platforms. He expressed that the significance of this international cooperation project is substantial, and the Shenzhen Blood Center will devote its resources to fully support the advancement and implementation of the project. It is hoped that the three partners will use this as a starting point and derive more collaborative projects through various forms of academic exchanges, talent cultivation, and collaborative research, to jointly promote high-quality development in the field of life and health.

| The director of the Shenzhen Blood Center, Ning Li is introducing

During the ceremony, Zhang Peng, Deputy Director of the R&D Department of SIAT, stated that this cooperation is one of the key projects in the NSFC-funded projects involving life science and health fields, and it has been included in the priority list for the international scientific organization cooperation projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "Belt and Road" initiative. SIAT will fully support the project and hopes that all partners will work together to achieve the goals of the project plan, complement each other's strengths, collaborate effectively, and achieve a win-win outcome.

Later, Aldo Tagliabue, the Chief Scientist of the Laboratory of Inflammation and Vaccines of the SIAT- Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology (IBB) and the project leader, and Li Yang, the deputy director of the LIV, respectively, gave presentations on the research background, content, implementation path, and team division of the collaborative project. The leaders and expert group present fully recognized the significance, feasibility, and team strength of the project and provided guidance and suggestions on the research content and focus.

| Professor Tagliabue is introducing project

| Professor Li Yang is introducing the project

The three partners will jointly establish an international research platform to measure human immune responses to the SARS-Cov-2 using the world's top technology. The results will be used to develop rapid and simple immune detection tools to facilitate the development of SARS-Cov-2 vaccines and clinical testing of immunotherapy. In addition, the project's smooth implementation will help assess the immune level of the population against the COVID-19 and evaluate the anti-viral immunity in the post-epidemic era to prepare for possible future virus pandemics. The launching ceremony was attended by SIAT-IBB-LIV distinguished professor Diana Boraschi, vice director of Shenzhen Blood Center Lu Liang, relevant department heads, and other project team members.

| Meeting group photo