King's College London, AstraZeneca, the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM), the University of Glasgow and HSBC have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in Shanghai recently to explore how best to harness each other's strengths for the benefit of patients across the world.
The proposed collaboration is designed to connect people from the universities, the Shanghai ecosystem, HSBC and AstraZeneca and will focus primarily on enhancing scientific and clinical research to accelerate the development of innovative solutions to address global healthcare challenges.
The collective goal is to improve patient outcomes across the world via the integration of research and support for specific areas of life science such as gene and cell therapy, synthetic biology and medical AI to help fuel innovation.
Under the MoU, the UK university research institutions, King's College London and the University of Glasgow, will explore how to best connect with Shanghai's clinical and research networks to foster research and translational opportunities. While AstraZeneca and HSBC will use their expertise and networks to support the growth and international scaling of promising Shanghai start-up and scale-up life science ventures.
King's brings considerable expertise in translational medicine and particularly cell and gene therapy to this exciting partnership. Together we will drive advances in fundamental bioscience and medical research with clinical impact to develop new medicines for patients across the world.
Professor Mike Malim, Senior Vice Dean (Academic Strategy & Partnerships) and Professor of Infectious Diseases
I'd like to thank everyone for coming together and creating this opportunity for key institutions and organisations in the UK and China to work in partnership to deliver better outcomes for patients no matter where they live. Following the Prime Minister's visit to China in January, it is really exciting to be looking in more detail at the opportunities for joint working and collaboration between the UK and China and in particular with the Shanghai ecosystem.
Shaun Grady, Chair of AstraZeneca UK
Steve Rees, Head of Discovery Sciences at AstraZeneca, said: "Working in collaboration benefits everyone as we accelerate research and the delivery of innovation with the common goal of advancing global public health. This collaboration brings together leaders in research, innovation and industry to help transform healthcare and deliver potentially life-changing medicines."
Professor Carl Goodyear, Professor of Translational Immunology at the University of Glasgow, said: "We are delighted to join this collaboration, which promises to ensure the focus of innovation remains on the needs of patients around the world. Researchers at the University of Glasgow will bring world-class clinical and translational skills to the partnership, and together with other collaborators will help deliver health-focused innovations."
Will Longhurst, Head of Global Network Banking at HSBC Innovation Banking, said: "HSBC is pleased to collaborate with Astra Zeneca to accelerate the ongoing development of the Life Science innovation ecosystem. Supporting entrepreneurs has been at the heart of HSBC for more than 160 years, and we are proud to support the next generation of founders with their global ambitions."
The outcome of this programme will not just help advance science but deepen the ties between the two countries, with the potential to open up further opportunities across the life science sector.
The Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality is responsible for promoting scientific and technological development in Shanghai. The commission manages fiscal expenditure for science, organises international cooperation, and promotes science popularisation.
