15-17 April 2025 | Event
UM-ADT Networking to London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Wellcome Trust, Pandemic Science Institute and The Global Health Network, University of Oxford
By IA-DATA
The UM Affordable Diagnostics and Therapeutics (UM-ADT) team was privileged to participate in a number of meetings in the United Kingdom with Director-General of Health Malaysia, Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi and Clinical Research Malaysia. This included a visit to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) where we met with Professor Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Head of the Department of Infection Biology, and Professor Chris Drakeley, Professor of Infection and Immunity. The meeting served as a valuable platform to explore opportunities for research collaborations in infectious diseases between LSHTM and Malaysian Ministry of Health as well as developing collaborations with UM-ADT under the International Affordable Diagnostics and Therapeutics Alliance (IA-DATA).
The team also attended a roundtable discussion with the Wellcome Trust, which was hosted by Dr Alexander Pym, the Director of Infectious Disease and members of the Government Relations and Strategic Partnerships team. The discussions centred on tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and infectious diseases. Existing and future partnership opportunities in advancing global health were also discussed.
UM-ADT was also honoured to participate in a meeting at the Pandemic Science Institute (PSI), Oxford with Professor Sir Peter Horby, Chief Investigator of the RECOVERY platform study that spearheaded 16 repurposed drugs for the COVID-19 pandemic and Dr Emily Adams, Senior Diagnostic Scientist. Dr Radzi presented on Malaysia’s Hepatitis C affordable antiviral drug development success story, whilst Jean-Michel Piedagnel presented on the establishment of the South-South Diagnostic Alliance under IA-DATA. UM-ADT looks forward to developing future collaboration opportunities between PSI and Malaysia to develop affordable and accessible diagnostics and therapeutics.
The team also had the opportunity to engage with Professor Trudie Lang and team from The Global Health Network (TGHN) that connects researchers and promotes knowledge exchange and transfer between disease areas and across regions and networks. UM-ADT looks forward to exploring collaboration opportunities through TGHN’s knowledge exchange hub, capacity strengthening and training modules for researchers in developing countries.