Group Photo
On the morning of June 27, 2024, a plaque unveiling ceremony for the “Macau University of Science and Technology- Translation Medicine Animal Laboratory of Medical Sciences Division” was held in the lobby of Building P27.
The main guests present included: Chair Professor Tam Kwong Hang, Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of the Clinical Trial Center of M.U.S.T., Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences; Chair Professor Zhu Yi Zhun, Associate Vice-President and Director of the School of Pharmacy of M.U.S.T., Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; Dr. Chang Chi Wai (Valencia), Deputy Director of University Hospital and Director of the Medical Sciences Division of M.U.S.T.; Professor He Yao, Director of the Macao Translational Medicine Center; and Professor Wong Kam Wai, Assistant Director of the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine.
Professor Tam stated that the Translation Medicine Animal Laboratory was established to complement and further strengthen M.U.S.T 's position as a center for interdisciplinary translational medicine research. By bringing together diverse teams from fields such as medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, space science, bioengineering, etc., the laboratory will drive breakthroughs and help translate cutting-edge research into practical clinical applications.
A key focus of the laboratory will be the development of preclinical candidate compounds (PCCs) - a critical step in the drug discovery pipeline. It will coordinate the animal experiment needs across the University's research teams, leveraging expertise and resources to enable efficient, high-throughput PCC evaluation.
Speech by Vice-President Prof. Tam
(From left) Prof. Tam and Prof. Zhu
After the ceremony, Dr. Chen Yan, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Medicine and the person in charge of the Translation Medicine Animal Laboratory, led the attending guests on a visit to the site, introducing the functional layout of the various spaces of the laboratory, the animal husbandry scale, and the types of animal experiments that can be carried out.
Laboratory Visit
Currently, the Translation Medicine Animal Laboratory of Medical Sciences Division has been opened for use by researchers from various medical sciences units within the University. The first batch of mice housed totaling 1,500, ranges from normal mice and animal models including a chronic fatty liver model, tumor model, and bile duct ligation (BDL) mouse model. In the future, the laboratory will further expand the animal husbandry capacity and add more equipment such as stereomicroscopes and in vivo imaging systems for animal experiments, based on the needs of the researchers. This will support innovative translational medicine research in interdisciplinary fields such as medicine, Chinese medicine, space science and bioengineering, at the Macau University of Science and Technology.