New opportunities for Australian regenerative medicine with US partnership
The Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University has today announced a new cooperative agreement with US research centre, the Jackson Laboratory (JAX).
Under the agreement, the two institutions will establish cooperative programs and activities, exploring opportunities for short and long-term faculty and student exchanges, visits, education and training.
Professor John Carroll, Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences at Monash University said the agreement is a great opportunity for two institutions with complementary expertise to advance research and research training.
“Research is a global activity and this agreement will help bring the best scientists from opposite sides of the world together to make important medical discoveries. We very much look forward to partnering with scientists and staff at the Jackson Laboratory,” Professor Carroll said.
The Jackson Laboratory is an independent non-profit biomedical research institution employing 1600 staff. Its mission is to empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.
The news follows the recent announcement that ARMI’s founding Director, Professor Nadia Rosenthal has accepted a newly created position as Scientific Director of JAX in Maine. Joining JAX in May, she will take up Directorship in Bar Harbor by the end of the year, retaining an honorary post at Monash.
Professor Robert Braun, Vice President for research at The Jackson Laboratory welcomed the agreement.
“We look forward to working closely with ARMI to develop a strong academic partnership and collaborative research programs,” Professor Braun said.
Professor Rosenthal has a long history of collaborations with JAX researchers, some of whom will become part of the new cooperative agreement. This includes working with Drs. Janan Eppig and Steve Murray of JAX to generate new mouse strains using Cre technology for the EU-funded consortium known as EUCOMMTools, and with Dr. Gary Churchill to characterize the complex trait of cardiac regeneration using the Collaborative Cross mouse resource.
ARMI will also make available to JAX the transgenic resources that Rosenthal has established to genetically modify other animal models including fish, salamanders, chick (embryo), rats and marmosets, using both classic and CRISPR-mediated gene editing technologies, for comparative studies of gene function.