Page 10 - Berita Sunway - Issue 69

FEATURES
COLLABORATION WITH

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY

TO FIGHT COVID-19

Research institute housed at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre is at the forefront of the
UK’s research on COVID-19

n the global war against the COVID-19 pandemic, universities, THE EPICENTRE OF CAMBRIDGE'S
pharmaceutical firms, research institutes and government
Ilaboratories in more than 30 countries are in a race against time to RESPONSE TO COVID-19
discover the vaccine for the deadly coronavirus.
The JCBC brings under one roof the CITIID, the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge
As of June 9, the WHO reported that 10 candidate vaccines were in clinical Stem Cell Institute and the Milner Therapeutics Institute, which allows
evaluation, or have commenced human testing trials, while another 126 greater collaboration between scientists and clinicians, transforming
candidate vaccines are in pre-clinical valuation stage. pioneering research into effective therapies.

Playing its part in the global vaccine hunt is the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical The three institutes are now collaborating intensely in tackling the
Centre (JCBC) at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in the UK, the COVID-19 threat.
largest biotech cluster outside the US.
Home to the largest BSL (biosafety level 3) containment facility in the
The JCBC currently houses over 150 scientists and clinicians at the UK, CITIID was established to study the relationship between infectious
Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases diseases and human immune systems. Having containment level 3
(CITIID), which is the University of Cambridge’s leading response team facilities allows CITIID to work on lethal and dangerous pathogens such
against the pandemic. as the coronavirus.
Opened in 2019, the JCBC is situated in a group of state-of-the-art “The world is facing an unprecedented challenge, with potentially millions
laboratories and hospitals including the world-famous Laboratory of of lives at risk, which is why over 150 of my colleagues at our new institute
Molecular Biology (16 Nobel Prizes), the Royal Papworth Hospital – the are focusing their expertise on the fightback against COVID-19,” said
most illustrious Heart and Lung Hospital in Europe – and Addenbrooke’s Professor Ken Smith, director of CITIID, in an official statement on the
Hospital. University of Cambridge website.

10 | BERITA SUNWAY | JUL—SEP 2020