A president of a large medical college in China brought his traveling delegation to The Hormel Institute Friday morning for a tour of the state-of-the-art research facility led by Executive Director Dr. Zigang Dong.

President Zhou Keyuan, head of Guangdong Medical College, made his first visit to The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota-Mayo Clinic with half a dozen members in his group.

“I am very pleased to have hosted my long-time friend and collaborator President Keyuan, along with the other members of his delegation,” Dong said. “Quite a few of our scientists have been trained at The Hormel Institute after graduating from Guangdong Medical College.”

Keyuan’s group first traveled to Edmonton, Canada; Chicago; and Rochester’s Mayo Clinic. They will next visit Washington, D.C., among other stops.

Keyuan, who collaborates with Dong on cancer research, teaches and conducts research in biochemistry and molecular biology, with a focus on studying the mechanism of cell decay and death along with its effective factors.

Dong is a co-leader of The Hormel Institute’s largest research section, Cellular & Molecular Biology, which has about 40 post-doctoral scientists doing cancer research.

Guangdong Medical College, established in 1958, is the chief medical science education and research center in China’s Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces. It consists of two campuses — one in the seaport city of Zhanjiang and the other in Dongguan City — along with about 8,895 students, including 392 postgraduate students, and 2,642 staff members in the college and affiliated hospital.