A group of senior researchers, led by LSTM’s Deputy Director, Professor Steve Ward, is in China this week as part of the Liverpool-Guangdong Drug Discovery Consortium. The consortium, made up of LSTM, University of Liverpool (UoL), Department of Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacy Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, China (GDUT), is focussed on the development of new drug therapies for the treatment of TB, Malaria and other infectious diseases.
During the visit, Professor Ward, along with LSTM’s Dr Giancarlo Biagini and Professor Paul O’Neill and Dr David Hong from UoL, will be there for the official opening of the Liverpool-Guangzhou drug discovery joint laboratory, located at GDUT. The laboratory will accommodate a drug discovery team made up of staff and students from GDUT and other parts of China.
The week-long trip will also see the consortium members visiting various pharmaceutical companies to look for potential partners in industry. They will travel from Guangzhou to Shanghai part way through their week where they will visit the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBS) of Shanghai Medical School, Fudan University where the team will deliver a seminar about their work, as well as a tour of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC.).
Professor Steve Ward said: “We were all very excited to be in China, particularly for the official opening of the laboratory which will focus on drug discovery in relation to infections such as TB, malaria, neglected and other infectious diseases which continue to affect marginalised people in the developing world. We hope that this collaboration will not only bring results in terms of research, but will also provide some of the students involved from GDUT the opportunity to study back in Liverpool. Researchers from LSTM and UoL will be visiting the lab on a regular basis, to ensure progress and continued partnership towards our common goal.”