The new year is off to a great start for the partnership between University of Maryland (UMD) and Shanghai’s East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST). This partnership began five years ago when Prof. Greg Payne, from UMD’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) and Fischell Department of Bioengineering, was appointed a Chaired Professor in ECUST. The goal of this partnership has been to integrate UMD’s expertise in biofabrication with ECUST’s translational research in biomedical materials. Prof. Changsheng Liu, ECUST’s Vice President and a member of the Chinese National Academy of Sciences, initiated this collaboration as part of ECUST’s efforts to attract international participation in their research programs. “Our work with Maryland has been one of our most successful examples of international collaboration and has led to numerous technical advances while enhancing our graduate student training,” noted Liu.