I arrived in Guangzhou on the afternoon of March 7 from London, via Hong Kong and Shanghai. I had a brief stopover in Shanghai to discuss a possible collaborative project with Professor Yan Sun of the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, concerned with the drug-like properties of Stepholidine, a compound isolated from the Chinese medicinal plant, Stephania intermedia.  I was conducted on a brief tour of the facilities and met Professor Yang Yushe for an update on the status of the compound.
After sightseeing in the rain in Guangzhou on the Saturday, on Sunday two research students arrived at the hotel to take me to meet my host, Professor Bing Gao at the School of Bioscience and Bioengineering, South China University of Technology.



This was followed by discussions on possible collaborative projects and student exchange with Professor Wen Tan, Dean of the School. Subsequent to that I gave my first talk on ‘A combined D1 Agonist/D2 Antagonist for the Treatment of Schizophrenia’ to staff and students of the school, which was particularly well attended given the fact that it was given on a Sunday. This was followed by a Q&A session on the talk and then after a presentation of the ongoing research conducted at the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, and of the research interests of key research project leaders at UCLAN, a discussion regarding areas of mutual interest took place. A tour of the facilities then followed.

Monday began with an early start and a tour of the chemistry laboratories, invited at each one to comment on and discuss the work being undertaken.  I was then taken to meet Professor  Marco Pistolozzi, School of Bioscience and Bioengineering, who was my host for the remainder of the day. I presented on ‘5-HT_2C Agonists for the Treatment of Obesity’, ‘Progress in the Identification of Inhibitors of Cytochrome P450 1B1 as Potential Anti-cancer Agents’, and gave further details on ‘A combined D1 Agonist/D2 Antagonist for the Treatment of Schizophrenia’. Discussions of mutual interest and areas of collaboration continued through lunch at a local restaurant until evening.

On the following day I began my journey back to London via Taipei and Hong Kong, with a stopover in Taiwan to meet a number of the academic staff at the College of Pharmacy, China Medical University, including Professor Yang-Chang Wu, Dean and Vice President. The China Medical University is located in Taichung, some 80 miles to the south of Taipei, a pleasant and comfortable train journey.




My host for the day was Professor Wen-Te Chang. At first I gave a presentation on ‘5-HT_2C Agonists for the Treatment of Obesity’ as an example in drug discovery and development, hit-to-lead-to clinic. This was followed a presentation of my current research interests and those of a number of colleagues at the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical at UCLAN. A discussion of possible areas of collaboration followed, including student exchange.