The University of Macau (UM), the University of Oxford’s Saint Anne’s College and Centre for Personalised Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Dr Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation recently initiated a seminar, where representatives exchanged ideas on the latest achievements in biomedical sciences and discussed opportunities for collaboration in teaching and research as well as in training professionals.

UM University Council Chair Lam Kam Seng shared UM’s educational philosophy and its latest developments at the seminar. Huen Wing Ming, Administrative Committee chair and Board of Trustees vice chair of the Dr Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation, said that medical research and information technology are advancing rapidly, so it is important to vigorously push Macao towards international standards in this area and to strengthen collaboration among different universities to combat human diseases. Three leading experts in the field from Oxford, namely Simon Travis, Simon Leedham, and Peter Donnelly, discussed their latest research findings and expressed hope to extend their studies to Macao to help the city achieve new breakthroughs in medical research. Chuxia Deng, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UM, shared the faculty’s milestones and its key areas in cancer research, with an emphasis on the faculty’s achievements in recent years in personalised medicine, adding that the faculty will continue to strengthen communication and collaboration on both regional and international levels. Representatives from the three universities had in-depth discussions on new technologies in biomedical sciences and cutting-edge research in the field. They also discussed various models of collaboration.

Other participants in the seminar included Yonghua Song, rector of UM; Helen King, principal of St Anne’s College; Robert Chard, vice principal of St Anne’s College; Joseph Sung, former vice-chancellor and president and current Mok Hing Yiu Professor of Medicine at CUHK; and Francis Chan, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK.