BY ARUNA GANESAN
BANDAR SUNWAY: As an effort to bring research sector and industry together, Monash University Malaysia recently signed a long term Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with American based multinational corporation namely PerkinElmer at Monash University Malaysia on September 5th.
It’s PerkinElmer’s first collaboration which covers comprehensive research scopes, encompassing analytical and life sciences.
Prof Steven Langford, Head of Monash School of Science believes that the students will be benefit by this partnership toward publishing journals and research papers. He also mentioned that it is a significant day for the School of Science and also for the campus. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
“It took two years for the campus to come to this point” he added. It is notable that Monash School of Chemistry at Monash University Australia had a partnership earlier with PerkinElmer in 2015.
“It is the first time Monash University Malaysia is collaborating with a partner across international corporate under the new vice chancellor.” said Langford.
The memorandum was signed by Prof Mahendhiran Nair, Monash Vice Chancellor Research and Development (R&D) and Tan Tee Peng, South Specific Regional General Manager of PerkinElmer Malaysia. PerkinElmer which was initially specialised in chemistry based technology have added life science technology recently which adds to the attractiveness of the company to partner with Monash University Malaysia.
“We not only manufacture analytical instrument, but we also provide services like genetic testing and medical imaging software where we can observe single tumour cell” said Tan during his talk.
In August this year, the company introduced the new version of ChemDraw software to aid drug development. ChemDraw is a quick solution to draw complex molecular structures and to build personalised biopolymeric sequences within a short time.
Apart from that, the university is to develop a Centre of Excellence for analytical instrumentation for the benefit of graduate students. Student’s exposure to latest and various cutting-edge instruments and sophisticated technologies from PerkinElmer is believed to facilitate and accelerate the R&D discoveries among researchers and students from the university.
“So it’s no longer just a sale, maintenance of equipment, but also intellectually helping out in terms of research and solving questions that help researchers” said Monash Deputy Head of School (Research), Associate Prof Kumaran Narayanan.
The Centre of Excellence is called such because it is going to be a core research centre just as the building in Australia, Green Chemical Futures (GCF) which is an effort after the collaboration of Monash University Australia with PerkinElmer. It is where Chemical and Plastic Manufacturing Innovation Network, PerkinElmer’s Axieo Centre for Innovation and Victorian Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing is located providing opportunities for partnership and innovation in Australian research and manufacturing.
Kenneth Way, Sales Manager of PerkinElmer Malaysia said, “R&D and the industry should collaborate, and this is what particularly lacks in Malaysia.” Malaysian scientists have collaborated with scientists from other nationalities and produced thousands of publications. Since Malaysia is already focusing in lab bench top data and journal publications, PerkinElmer would like to bring the R&D outputs to preclinical level.
“We would like to bring our local research milestone to a higher level of impact in commercial worlds” he added. The memorandum certainly will lay a good research and learning platforms to the student while allowing scientific community interaction between the two parties. Meanwhile, the university also benefits in research, funding and application through their partnership with globally renowned corporation, PerkinElmer.
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