Israel And The UK Saving The World

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First Israel UK Regenerative Medicine Conference

A delegation of 60 British top academics visited Israel to participate the first UK-Israel Regenerative Medicine Conferenct and launch of the first Call for Proposals of the BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Initiative at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Over 250 people participated in this conference, with millions of people who have suffered major trauma, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease standing to benefit from this first-ever gathering of specialists. Visit our facebook page to see some photos from the conference

Regenerative Medicine aims to restore the function of tissues and organs using a variety of approaches including cell therapy, tissue engineering, gene therapy and biomedical engineering. Both Israel and the UK are recognised as world leaders in this cutting-edge area of medicine.

The conference was the inaugural event of the BIRAX - Regenerative Medicine Initiative, a five-year programme that aims to raise £10 million and will give generous support to 15 joint high quality UK-Israel research projects.

These projects should offer the prospect of a significant impact on global health, enhance joint research between British and Israeli academic institutions and invest in early stage collaboration between researchers, including PhD and Postdoctoral students. Projects will be selected by an expert panel and approved by the UK-Israel Life Sciences Council.

Dr Simon Kay, Director at the British Council’s Israel office, said: “We believe this project has potential to make real scientific breakthroughs. Science is an incredibly strong tool for celebrating and sharing the immense intellectual prowess of both our countries and is one of the cornerstones of our work here in Israel."

Matthew Gould, British Ambassador to Israel, said: “Britain and Israel are natural partners in regenerative medicine. The UK is a world leader in science - we have four of the world’s top ten universities - and Israel is a scientific powerhouse. We can achieve much more together than we can apart. My hope is that this conference leads to a surge of collaborations between British and Israeli scientists, with the UK-Israel Regenerative Medicine programme stimulating ground-breaking research projects.”

BIRAX (the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership) was designed by the British Council in Israel in Collaboration with Pears Foundation and academic leaders from both countries and is managed by the British Council in Israel. It was launched by the Prime Ministers of both countries in 2008 with the aim of strengthening academic cooperation between universities in the UK and Israel through the awarding of grants for joint scientific research.

The UK-Israel Life Sciences Council – a group of 19 top scientists from both countries which met for the first time in Jerusalem in January 2011–decided that the BIRAX programme should focus on the area of regenerative medicine. This senior group of scientists includes four Nobel prize winners, three members of the House of Lords, presidents of universities, and some of the most distinguished scientists in the world.

The conference expert committee was jointly chaired by Prof. Chris Mason (University College London), Prof. Benjamin Geiger (Weizmann Institute of Science) and Prof. Smadar Cohen (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev). Conference sessions included cell therapy, stem cell biology, tissue engineering, biomedical engineering and gene therapy, giving British and Israeli researchers the opportunity to develop collaboration.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLGPo2TgJJU]First BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Conference, Nov 2011 (HD) - YouTube[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAKFlpdcfc]Applause - YouTube[/ame]