Bangkok--21 Jul--TCELS
The Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) successfully flew its flag at the 2014 BIO International Convention established collaborations with US giant firms and government agencies.
The 2014 BIO International Convention, held from 23-26 June in San Diego, California, drew 20,000 participants including researchers, scientists, investors and businessmen from both the public and private sectors. TCELS led a team of Thai delegates from allied agencies including the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), Biodiversity Based Economy Development Office (BEDO), National Nanotechnology Centre (NANOTEC) under National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office (STI), Naresuan University, Prince of Songkla University, King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi and private sector partners including Austrianova Thailand Ltd., Siam Bioscience Co., Ltd, Photo Bio Care Co., Ltd, etc. Works and innovation by Thai researchers were also presented at the Thai Pavilion.
TCELS presented projects under its support including a whitening product made from natural latex extracted by Prince of Songkla University and Naresuan University, and pre-clinical and clinical research developments that meet international standards.
CEO of TCELS, Dr. Nares Damrongchai, said that during this three-day event, more than 800 visitors showed their interest and sought details about Bio-Nanotechnology investment, standard clinical research and development, as well as Thai life-science products.
Dr. Nares said that Thailand has achieved great success at this event as it could establish collaborations with giant firms and government agencies big countries like USA, India, Czech Republic, Spain etc. TCELS’ team also went for a site visit to Scripps Research Institute. It will have collaboration on human resource development with them. Most importantly, TCELS is dealing with a high potential company in drug development for infectious diseases. It seeks for Thai venture capitalists to join the investment for such drug development.
CEO of TCELS also said that after the BIO International Convention, he had a chance to attend the international conference of stem cell in Canada. The conference focused on the global laboratory advancements of cell and gene research for treatment and therapy of many diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, cardiovascular, and cancer including regenerative tissues like corner tissues (like cornea) According to the latest advancements, now it has been proved and accepted that some diseases can be treated by cell and gene therapy, for example, some blood diseases. There were also discussions about social and legal issues including the ownership between the tissue owners and the researchers, which is still an ongoing argument in many countries.