2010-05-17

On 15 May 2010 the Shantou-Oxford Clinical Research Unit (SOCRU) was established at SUMC. Professor Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam, and Professor Nick Day, Director of the Mahidol Oxford Clinical Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand were present during the inauguration ceremony, together with Dean Gu and other senior staff members of SUMC.

Established with the support of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, the purpose of SOCRU is to strengthen the collaboration between SUMC and the University of Oxford in the field of scientific research related to human and animal health. The collaboration will include exchange of academic expertise, research ideas, and techniques held by both universities to facilitate scientific progress in and understanding of human and animal health and will be lead by the principal investigators Prof. William Ba-Thein from SUMC and Prof. Farrar from the University of Oxford.

A two-day training course in infectious diseases was held for students on 15 and 16 May. Several experts gave interesting lectures on neonatal infections, influenza, typhoid, dengue fever, malaria, melioidosis, rickettsial diseases and central nervous system infections. A total of 25 selected participants from different universities and medical organizations from Shanghai, Beijing and several cities in Guangzhou, participated in the training sessions.

Please visit the website of the University of Oxford here for more information.