A pioneering new agreement between a New Zealand university and the south China province of Guangdong will lead to innovative health treatments, New Zealand researchers said Wednesday.

The scientific collaboration between the University of Auckland and Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Department is the first of its kind for a New Zealand university in China.

It will focus on advanced research in biomedicine, engineering sciences, and systems to support innovation and commercialization.

The research covered under a memorandum of understanding would include stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine, metabolic disease, immune therapy for cancer, and drug discovery, said Professor Rod Dunbar, director of the university's Maurice Wilkins Centre for molecular science.

"A key focus under the partnership with Guangdong is innovation that will lead to new therapies for human disease," Dunbar said in a statement.

Part of the agreement is to develop therapies jointly, enabling both countries to benefit from accelerated progress from the laboratory to the clinic.

The new collaborative framework builds on the Strategic Research Alliance, established in 2013 by the New Zealand and Chinese governments.

The university would use the relationship between these two institutes as a model to expand collaboration with scientists in Guangdong Province in other fields, such as engineering sciences.