Community to benefit from University-SAHMRI partnership

Friday, 29 November 2013

The University of Adelaide will see a boost in its capacity to address some of the most serious health problems facing Australians thanks to today's launch of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

SAHMRI's research facilities have been officially launched in Adelaide today by the Prime Minister, the Hon. Tony Abbott MP. The University of Adelaide is a founding member of SAHMRI.

The University's Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Warren Bebbington, says the health precinct at the West-End of North Terrace will become a key one for teaching as well as research activities.

"Building our new $130m medical and nursing school next to the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute opens up many possibilities. Almost half of all those working in SAHMRI will be University of Adelaide staff. Therefore we can bring onto a single site our medical researchers, our students and our patients," Professor Bebbington says.

"The West-End precinct buildings encourage the separate institutions to work together towards a healthier future. And our prominent presence within SAHMRI will drive a concentration that should improve our capacity to address the serious health issues facing the Australian community - heart disease, diabetes, obesity, premature babies, cancer, nutrition and metabolism.

A hospital and its medical school depend on each other, and to operate at their best, they depend on first-class research infrastructure. Moving the University of Adelaide's clinical schools to be with the new hospital in the West-End will preserve the collocation and interaction we have always had with the State's primary health facility. And being next to SAHMRI means we can centralise teaching, research and patient services in a single location," he says.

Professor Mike Brooks, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), says: "At the University of Adelaide, our world-class research teams have made a great commitment over many years to finding breakthroughs for some of society's most critical health problems. The quality and enormous depth in our health and medical research is in part due to our strong collaborations with Adelaide's public hospitals, with SA Pathology - and now SAHMRI.

"These unique working relationships, from fundamental research to applied clinical work, have helped to propel our staff and affiliates into positions of national and international leadership in their fields.

"At the new SAHMRI building, many of our best medical research programs will continue to thrive, with new premises and collocated researchers from other institutions. I have no doubt that this arrangement will ultimately result in many new medical discoveries and improved health outcomes for the community."

SAHMRI's Research Themes fit neatly into areas of research expertise at the University of Adelaide that enjoy an outstanding international reputation, including cancer, heart health, mothers' and babies' health, nutrition, infectious diseases and neuroscience.

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