USM, PENANG, 27 February 2017 – The collaboration established between Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) with RIKEN Institute, a leading research institute from Japan, was aimed at promoting scientific progress in the research on ageing science, resulting in both parties developing a range of research on the ageing process through the USM-RIKEN Centre of Ageing Science (URICAS).

Director of USM Life Sciences Nexus, Professor Dr. Mohd. Nazalan Mohd. Najimudin said, URICAS was established two years ago through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and which until now has 20 students with various higher education degrees, which include Bachelor, Doctoral and Post-Doctoral degrees.

"The challenges faced by an ageing population include the expenditure of health care, medical and long-term care. Therefore, URICAS has the role of finding solutions, methods or ways to tackle the problem.”

"This cooperation would benefit both parties, especially in increasing the number of high-quality research and publication," he said during the URICAS Symposium 2017 at the Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM) in USM, here yesterday.

He also said, URICAS is now growing with the involvement of more young scientists who are committed in leading and taking over the roles of previous generations in achieving the objectives of URICAS to expand scientific knowledge.

Nazalan added, “URICAS also serves as a platform for USM students to gain the opportunity to work with leading scientists at RIKEN, in addition to having access to a variety of advanced high-tech facilities available at RIKEN for research work and publications”.

This is the second symposium to be held after the first one in Japan, and it was attended by more than 100 participants, including young researchers, who also presented brief outcomes of their research, including poster presentations.

Also present at the symposium were the Coordinator of RIKEN-URICAS, Professor Dr. Hiroshi Ohno; Coordinator of USM-URICAS, Professor Dr. Shaharum Shamsuddin and representatives from USM and RIKEN.

Translation: Evelyn Esu Dass (Intern, USM School of Communication)