LSI/Weizmann Launch Partnership
August 16, 2005
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The Life Sciences Institute (LSI) at the University of Michigan and the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Israel launched a partnership for scientific collaboration and exchange.
The researchers believe the alliance can produce a great effect on battling disease areas, including diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Programs for both faculty and student exchange and a scientific symposium are now in place.
"It's just a great way to expand our mission for collaboration," said Alan Saltiel, LSI director and research professor. "Both Institutes prize science at the highest levels, and appreciate the value of scientists who care deeply about collaboration."
"This collaboration will strengthen the links between our institutions and will foster research in scientific areas yet to be explored," said Yehiel Zick of WIS.
The Faculty Exchange Program is aimed at independent investigators who wish to visit laboratories at the partner institution to establish new collaborations or expand existing ties.
The Student Exchange Program is aimed at Masters and PhD students, as well as postdoctoral trainees, who wish to spend at least two weeks in the laboratories of their collaborators abroad.
Following the successful symposium in 2004 on "Cellular and Molecular Aspects of Biological Responses" in Israel , a joint scientific symposium is scheduled for the fall of 2006 in Ann Arbor.
The website http://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/institute/labs/lsi-wis/index.html contains information about the partnership including applications for exchange opportunities with application information. All UM faculty and students are invited to apply.
The Weizmann Institute of Science, located in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions in the world. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the sciences and technology, the Institute gathers together 2,500 scientists, technicians and research students devoted to adventuring into the unknown. In their labs, located in a landscaped campus environment, they share a vision: To better understand nature and our place within it. The Institute comprises 18 departments organized into five faculties--Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematical Sciences, as well as the Feinberg Graduate School, which has responsibility for a Science Teaching Department and a Youth Activities Section. The Institute has also established a series of interdisciplinary research centers to promote the wide-ranging collaboration characteristic of today's frontier field.
The Life Sciences Institute in Ann Arbor is a new scientific enterprise at the University of Michigan. Formed in 2001 with a generous endowment from the University, the Institute is housed in a new six-story, 230,000 square foot open design laboratory facility located in the center of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. Understanding that progress in the prevention and treatment of major diseases will require the collective insights of researchers from various disciplines, the LSI is intended as a hub for collaboration among outstanding scientists focusing together on biological problems of importance. The Institute seeks to harness the strength and tradition of academic excellence at the University of Michigan by forging links between the health sciences, basic sciences, engineering, the social sciences and the humanities. Blending diverse skills and approaches between wise veterans and energetic junior researchers will develop synergies that yield profound insights into the complexity of life that lies between the genome and the organism. Areas of focus include molecular and cellular biology, genetics, genomics and proteomics, and structural, computational and chemical biology.
