Tongji Medical College Overseas Alumni Association (TJMCOAA) is a U.S. Federal registered non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the professional ties among our members, and between our members and alma mater. The annual collection of publications was an ongoing project sponsored by the TJMCOAA, and was initiated by Drs Guohua Li, Huiyun Xiang, Marilyn (Mengrong) Li, Steven (Sijiu) Shen and Henry Liu in 2007. After an interruption in 2012, we decided to restore this meaningful project in response to many requests and positive appraisals of past issues.

We are pleased to present the selected scholarly work published by our fellow alumni around the world as a first or corresponding author. The 2012-2013 edition is composed of 77 articles authored by 34 alumni published from late 2010 to July 2013. The manuscripts not only exemplify the academic achievements of our overseas alumni, but also showcase the international research trends in various biomedical fields such as epidemiology, cardiovascular diseases, pathology, cancer, surgery, neuroscience, developmental biology and translational medicine.

We hope this collection of publications will serve as an intellectual bridge between our fellow overseas alumni and Tongji faculty and students. Please feel free to contact us if you have any comments and suggestions. Your feedback is much appreciated.