At the invitation of Professor Guo Xiong of XJTU's Endemic Disease Research Center, a University College London (UCL) delegation, including Professor David Abraham, Professor Markella Pontico, and Professor Shiwen Xu, visited XJTU's School of Public Health. They discussed future cooperation of a joint master's program and joint research, and establishing the XJTU-UCL Joint Research Center for Molecular Medicine and Endemic Diseases.

On the morning of August 31, 2019, representatives of XJTU and UCL signed an agreement for establishing the XJTU-UCL Joint Research Center for Molecular Medicine and Endemic Diseases.