PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 9, Nov. 3, 2005

UI joins alliance to find cures for infectious diseases

The UI is participating in an international collaboration to use nanotechnology tools for global health and medical research. The project was announced Oct. 13 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The collaborative effort being led by MIT is called GEM4 – Global Enterprise for Micro-Mechanics and Molecular Medicine.

" As educated citizens of the world, we have a moral obligation to use our talents and our resources to combat the diseases that are ravaging the world’s poorest countries,” said UI Chancellor Richard Herman, who led a UI delegation that attended the announcement ceremony in Cambridge, Mass.

A new Center for Intra-Cellular Mechanics will be established at Illinois that will, in collaboration with other universities in the alliance, sponsor and organize GEM4 workshops, Herman said.

“So far, more than $500,000 has been committed by the university and College of Engineering to establish the center,” said Ilesanmi Adesida, interim dean of the college and the director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

“The UI is joining hands with leading world institutions to address infectious diseases, and the College of Engineering and the CNST are taking the lead in partnering with MIT, Georgia Tech, and the National University of Singapore to develop novel techniques in an interdisciplinary environment,” Adesida said.

The other institutions in the GEM4 collaborative: California Institute of Technology; Chulabhorn Research Institute, Thailand; Georgia Institute of Technology; Harvard University; Institut Pasteur, Paris; Max-Planck Society, Germany; National University of Singapore; University of California at San Diego.

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