Centre continues to fight serious disease

5 June 2007

Centre continues to fight serious disease for New Zealanders

The treatment of serious disease will continue to be a focus for New Zealand with an additional six years of funding allocated to the Maurice Wilkins Centre.

The Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery was established in 2002 as one of the first government funded Centres of Research Excellence. The goal of the Wilkins Centre is to build understanding of human disease, and to develop drugs, vaccines and new diagnostic tools to treat it. Current targets include cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and infectious disease.

“We are delighted the funding has been continued and look forward to further building New Zealand’s strength in biotechnology and medicine,” says Professor Ted Baker, Director of the Wilkins Centre. “We have ambitious plans for the future and look forward to developing new collaborations, both at home and internationally.

“Our leading investigators have won many national and international honours in recent years. Our goal for the future is to provide all our associated investigators with the opportunity to develop their own ideas and projects. By offering support and independence for our younger scientists, we hope to inspire our researchers and provide them with a strong environment in which to develop careers in New Zealand.”

The Wilkins Centre brings together over 200 researchers in chemistry, biology, medicine and bioengineering headed by eight principal investigators. The team includes leaders in science and commercial biotechnology, providing the scientists at the Wilkins Centre with unrivalled knowledge of the drug discovery industry.

Collaborative projects are funded to allow researchers to share information and resources and provide a multidisciplinary approach to drug and vaccine discovery. The Wilkins Centre has also built a strong infrastructure for research, allowing access to specialised equipment, such as our crystallisation robotics, mass spectrometry and MRI imaging facilities, for researchers from both Universities and Crown Research Institutes across New Zealand.

“We’ve had some very exciting successes in the past five years, and we look forward to continuing this legacy well into the future,” continued Professor Baker.

For more information, go to www.mauricewilkinscentre.org

ENDS

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