Launched in January 2021 for a period of 5 years as a continuation of the eponymous Groupement De Recherche International (GDRi), the Franco-Chinese International Research Network (IRN) CeSMeR, an international structuring tool of the CNRS, aims to create an interactive network of French and Chinese research teams on the emerging theme of cell and tissue engineering. In addition to Chinese participants from Wuhan (School of basic medical scienceC1-C3 ; Zhongnan hospital C4-C5), Calmette (hospital of Kunming C6) and Tianjin (National Engineering Center of Cell Products C7), this IRN includes French partners from Nancy (IMoPA F1, LRGP F2, UTCT F3), Reims (MEDyC F4), Paris (ICSN F5) and Strasbourg (NanoRegMed F6, ICube F7). The coordination is ensured by the UMR 7365 F1 in Nancy and by the University of Wuhan C1.

The scientific objective is to bring together the complementary experiences of high quality laboratories to carry out an ambitious multidisciplinary research program in the field of regenerative medicine. This program combines fundamental and applied research up to the pre-clinical model and aims at designing new treatments for degenerative diseases mainly related to age (cardiovascular diseases, osteoarticular diseases, fibrosis, hepatic cirrhosis...) or dysfunctions of the immune system (GVHD, septic shock)

The IRN CeSMeR is organized around two complementary axes: (1) Cellular engineering (production, characterizations and cellular regulations) and (2) Tissue engineering (biomechanics, matrix synthesis and cell-matrix-environment interactions). The project takes advantage of the different experimental, modeling and simulation approaches developed by the partners (collection, production and differentiation of stem cells) for the design, optimization and synthesis of new biomaterials, their implantation in the lesion and the assessment of their functionality at the level of the tissue or organ.