> Backgrounder: Agreements strengthen ties with Yonsei University
Backgrounder: Agreements strengthen ties with Yonsei University
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
May 20, 2008
Simon Fraser University and South Korea's Yonsei University are signing a pair of agreements today that will advance collaborative research in the areas of materials science and medicinal chemistry – and build on an existing relationship that promises many new and unique opportunities for exchanges and collaborations.
The Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) will see professors, researchers and students work together to forward the development of hydrogen technologies as well as nanomedical technologies and diagnostics.
Collaborations will provide for faculty and students exchanges in a wide range of activities, including joint research proposals and international labs. SFU's 4D Labs and its materials science and fuel cells groups will all play key roles in the university's involvement.
"SFU's 4D Labs and our materials science and fuel cells groups have built an international reputation for innovative multidisciplinary research," says Mario Pinto, SFU's Vice President of Research.
The MOUs are designed to build opportunities for knowledge and technology transfer while contributing to innovation and productivity growth for both economies.
Previous agreements (signed in 2004) have facilitated earlier exchanges between the two universities.
The MOUs fall under the provincial government's Asia Pacific Initiative, created a year ago as a long-term strategy to diversify B.C.'s economic ties with the Asia Pacific.
Collaborations in material sciences
The Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) will see professors, researchers and students work together to forward the development of hydrogen technologies as well as nanomedical technologies and diagnostics.
Collaborations will provide for faculty and students exchanges in a wide range of activities, including joint research proposals and international labs. SFU's 4D Labs and its materials science and fuel cells groups will all play key roles in the university's involvement.
"SFU's 4D Labs and our materials science and fuel cells groups have built an international reputation for innovative multidisciplinary research," says Mario Pinto, SFU's Vice President of Research.
The MOUs are designed to build opportunities for knowledge and technology transfer while contributing to innovation and productivity growth for both economies.
Previous agreements (signed in 2004) have facilitated earlier exchanges between the two universities.
The MOUs fall under the provincial government's Asia Pacific Initiative, created a year ago as a long-term strategy to diversify B.C.'s economic ties with the Asia Pacific.
Collaborations in material sciences
- SFU’s materials science group has been ”extremely successful in acquiring infrastructure and attracting international scholars of the highest caliber” as well as substantive research funding, Pinto notes.
- SFU researchers have secured, for example, more than $5 million in infrastructure to support fuel cell modeling and fuel cell materials science research. Current operating expenditures on costs related to fuel cell research amount to more than half a million dollars annually.
- SFU has also built an international reputation for research in advanced materials for fuel cells. Significant projects have been carried out in collaboration with such B.C. companies as Ballard Power Systems, Methanex Corp. and Angstrom Power - resulting in patents, high quality research papers and the transfer of knowledge.
- One of the strategic goals of 4D Labs will be to develop hydrogen technologies that can be adapted to the burgeoning economies of China, India and Korea.
- Researchers are hopeful that leading edge research on electrochemical hydrogen technologies and breakthrough materials, which can increase the cost-effectiveness of hydrogen, could assist these rapidly developing industrial economies to make cleaner and more sustainable energy choices.
- The Nanomed Canada Research Network, a group of nanotechnology researchers administered by SFU (whose aim is to facilitate the collaborative development of new medical technologies, diagnostics and therapeutics) will work collaboratively on the use nanoparticles to deliver drugs to the site of treatment, for example, drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer, or for suppression of the immune system after organ transplants and grafts to prevent rejection.
Collaborations in medicinal chemistry
- Researchers will carry out activities aimed at developing new therapeutics for infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, influenza, hepatitis C, and West Nile virus, and chronic diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimers and bone disease.
- SFU has invested both physical infrastructure and research talent in this strategic research area, including the recently announced MedChem initiative, which will significantly expand SFU's medicinal chemistry capacity, and such high-profile appointments as Dr. Robert Young, who holds the Merck Frosst B.C. Leadership Chair in Pharmaceutical Genomics.
Related websites:
4D Labs:
SFU's largest research project to-date, 4D Labs is a $40 million research centre housing researchers from various disciplines who are pioneering new information processing and storage technologies that will meet the growing computing demands of telecommunications and healthcare delivery.
For more details see http://www.4dlabs.ca/
SFU's Materials Science group: http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/Research/materials/index.html
Backgrounder on the MedChem initiative:
http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media_releases/media_releases_archive/media_release05070802.html