Current Director: Renjie Jiao

Discovering the key mechanisms of innate immunity in Drosophila that are mediated by the Toll and IMD pathways, which are conserved in mammals, Prof. Jules Hoffmann was awarded in 2011 the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Sino-French Hoffmann Institute (SFHI) is a de novo institution that was founded in 2013 after a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Guangzhou Medical University (GMU) and University of Strasbourg (UOS) with the promotion of bilateral governments. During the first 2-3 years after its birth, the running of the institute was limited to mutual visits of scientists due to the fact that the new campus of GMU, where SFHI would be located, was under construction. In 2015/2016, SFHI started to recruit faculty staff, purchase core facilities, train technicians on the new campus, to get the institute ready to take off with its scientific research mission.

The mission of SFHI is to start its research focus on Drosophila innate immunity, and eventually aiming to provide solutions to human health problems like infectious diseases; to reach a high level of its basic and unique scientific research; to be a hub of training young immunology scientists who will be highly competitive with international visions.

SFHI has now four research directions: anti-viral immunity, anti-bacterial immunity, anti-fungal immunity and anti-oncogenic immunity, each of which consists of 1 - 3 leading scientists/principal investigators and a team of talented young scientists and graduate students.

Scientific innovation is the only way to achieve the mission of our lives as a life science scientist. SFHI started its way on the shoulders of the giants, we thus have no other choice but to perform innovative research, to make breakthroughs in theories and techniques. By doing these, we will be able to be part of the national innovation system, to become a world class research institute, to contribute to human health.

On behalf of SFHI, I cordially invite you to join SFHI or to collaborate with SFHI. We welcome highly motivated students who are determined to pursue immunological research to visit and/or make your postgraduate studies at our institute!

July 6th, 2020

Guangzhou, China