Bayer and Tsinghua University sign collaboration agreement

The two partners will establish a joint research center at Tsinghua University, the Bayer-Tsinghua (Institute of Biomedicine) Research Center of Innovative Drug Discovery. Yigong Shi, a structural biologist, currently director of the department of biological sciences and biotechnology and vice dean of the Institute of Biomedicine of Tsinghua University, was appointed director of this joint research center.

At the Bayer-Tsinghua Research Center, scientists from the Institute of Biomedicine, the department of biological sciences and biotechnology, the school of medicine, and the department of chemistry of Tsinghua University will collaborate with scientists from Bayer Schering Pharma’s global drug discovery along the drug discovery and development value chain in the therapeutic research areas of oncology, women’s health, diagnostic imaging, and cardiology. Through this collaboration, Tsinghua scientists will make substantial contributions with their research findings to the discovery of new medicines.

As part of this strategic partnership, Bayer Schering Pharma is planning to promote life science education as well as to reward scientific excellence at Tsinghua. For these purposes two funds will be launched: a ‘student fund’ and a ‘faculty fund’.

The ‘student fund’ will enable a variety of Bayer sponsored life science programs at Tsinghua, including student and scientist exchange programs between Tsinghua and Bayer Schering Pharma. The ‘faculty fund’ will reward creative individuals for their significant contributions to life sciences and research in drug discovery, in particular in the fields of Bayer Schering Pharma’s core therapeutic areas.