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The Taiwan Scottish Joint Workshop on Diseases and Regenerative Medicine: 9 October 2009
Scientists from Scotland and Taiwan came together for a two day workshop hosted by Professor Nick Hastie at the MRC Human Genetics Unit (23 and 24 September). Following a successful application to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the workshop aimed to promote collaborations in the fields of genetic factors and diseases, regenerative medicine, and cancer.
The team from Taiwan was led by Professor Cheng-Wen Wu (National Yang-Ming University, Academia Sinica:Institute of Biomedical Sciences, and National Health Research Institutes). The matching delegates from Scotland included Sir Ian Wilmut (Director of MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine) and Dr Josh Brickman, experts from IGMM (Professor Margaret Frame & Dr Rob van’t Hof) and the MRC Human Genetics Unit (Professor Nick Hastie, Professor Malcolm Dunlop, Professor David FitzPatrick, Professor Howard Cooke and Dr Elizabeth Patton). Proposals of exchanging students and postdocs between groups with similar interests are currently being explored.
The delegates also enjoyed two lovely networking evenings. The first, was hosted by Professor Nick Hastie at the The Bonham Hotel and the second by Director General Steven Chu of Taipei Representative Office in the UK at China Town restaurant, both in Edinburgh. In addition to the science exchanged, delegates were particularly impressed by the great hospitality shown.
The workshop was funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the National Science Council of Taiwan.
Links
- The workshop programme
- The Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM)
- The Royal Society of Edinburgh
- National Science Council of Taiwan
Class Prize for the MSc Life Sciences programme:
19 October 2009
Katy Astell, who has recently begun her PhD studies in the Human Genetics Unit (HGU) in Edinburgh, has been awarded the Class Prize for the MSc Life Sciences programme. Katy won the award as a student in the HGU’s Masters programme run in the unit.
The Life Sciences MSc by research includes nine separate Master programmes run throughout the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. The winner of the Class Prize, determined by the Life Sciences exam board, which consists of the heads of each programme and an external examiner, awards the top student for the year’s work among all these programmes and comes with a monetary award. Katy is studying in the laboratory of Dr Andrew Jackson who research genetic factors involved in abnormalities of the brain.