Researchers in China and New Zealand have teamed up to develop a program that will try to improve research initiatives "biomedicine, engineering sciences, and systems to support innovation and commercialization," according to a recent report. The program is a collaboration between the University of Auckland and Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Department and is said to be a first for a New Zealand university in China. The program will cover stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine, metabolic disease, immune therapy for cancer, and drug discovery, said Rod Dunbar, director of the university's Maurice Wilkins Centre for molecular science. "A key focus under the partnership with Guangdong is innovation that will lead to new therapies for human disease," Dunbar said in a statement. The two groups plan to jointly produce therapies to accelerate the process from discovery to distribution to patients and was made possible by the 2013 Strategic Research Alliance entered into by the governments of the two countries. Report