A mobility program started in 2017 between Strasbourg University (UNISTRA) in France and Okayama University to expand the research collaborations. In October 2018, Professor Muller joined the program and spent 2 weeks in the research group headed by Professor T. Kuboki from the Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Science, Department of Dentistry.

Sylviane Muller is a Distinguished class research director in the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Strasbourg University (USIAS). She occupies a number of prestigious positions. In particular, she is the holder of the Chair of Therapeutic immunology at USIAS, and the Head of the 'Laboratory of Excellence’ (2011-2020) Drug discovery Center Medalis for cancer and inflammation.

Professor Muller was welcomed at Okayama University by President Hirofumi Makino and had fruitful discussions about the research collaboration, especially in the field of Lupus. Lupus is a debilitating autoimmune disease affecting about 60 000 patients in Japan and spread all over the world. Prof. Muller is the one of top level researchers in the field and interestingly, President Makino is also recognized as an international expert of Lupus treatment.

Professor Muller's agenda was very tight: she gave several talks in symposiums including 2 URA International seminars, a series providing a platform of presentation to outstanding researchers from all over the world visiting Okayama University. Senior Assistant Professor Kentaro Akiyama who is the host researcher of this exchange program also organized several meetings. In these meetings, Prof. Muller had opportunities to discuss with Okayama University main Executives and specialists of auto-immune diseases to engage new scientific and clinical programs. She is expecting to perform Clinical Trials of a specific molecule restoring major well-being conditions of patients in Japan. For that, strong collaboration with Okayama University is important, and if the phase of clinical test is successful in Japan, the possible gain for the Japanese population will be tremendous, she said.