Qatar University (QU) has announced the launch of a new Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research Unit (BPRU) under QU Health, to provide closer alignment and integration of health research sector at QU and to create a dynamic and diverse environment.
QU Health includes College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, and the recently established College of Dental Medicine.
The BPRU brings together researchers from several colleges forming multidisciplinary research teams that share resources and infrastructure.
One of the scopes of the BPRU is to give emphasis on the establishment of interdisciplinary disease-based graduate programmes around various thematic research areas according to Qatar National Priorities.
At present, BPRU hosts and supports more than 40 Principal Investigators and supporting personnel from four different QU Health Colleges.
The unit strives at consolidating the health research sector at QU through building critical mass of researchers from other QU colleges and centres with overlapping research scope.
The research thematic areas of BPRU have been strategically selected based on the research strengths and capacities of QU.
BPRU research focuses on the following main themes of biomedical and pharmaceutical research: cancer, diabetes and metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases and reproductive medicine.
Another important research area is drug discovery and development.
“We, at BPRU are actively pursuing national and international research ties aiming to secure more funding opportunities and eying impactful meaningful quality research,” said, Dr Michail Nomikos, head of research and graduate studies of the College of Medicine and the acting head of the BPRU.“It took almost a year of preparations for the official establishment of this unit.”
“We are excited to witness the rapid expansion and the structural solidification of biomedical research at QU Health under this new unit. I totally believe this unit would be a huge asset and step forward in securing QU among the key players in health research in Qatar and the globe,” Dr Feras Alali, director, research and graduate studies at QU Health, highlighted.
Dr Asmaa al-Thani, associate vice president, strategic planning noted, “The new established unit will support the graduate programmes in QU Health, considering the future direction of this new identity to accommodate Health Cluster PhD arms.”
“With this initiative we have the ambition to drive the basic medical sciences research to a higher level in the country and be a strong collaborative pillar to do this in collaboration with the other institutions doing basic medical research in Qatar,” added, Dr Egon Toft, vice president, medical and health sciences.
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