The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ)has been selected to join a number of leading world universities taking part in a new research initiative in Singapore.

Singapore’s newly founded National Research Foundation (NRF), plans to set up a series of research centers under the CREATE (Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise) program.

The Hebrew University’s research project will focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammation. The research aims to accelerate the development of diagnostic/prognostic indicators and novel therapeutics for common inflammatory diseases in Asia and elsewhere.

This is an area of great interest to major pharmaceutical companies who are looking for new therapies for inflammatory diseases. HUJ’s goal is to get a better understanding of the molecular processes involved in the development of these diseases and to use the research to create novel treatments..

The research will be carried out in collaboration with scientists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and other academic institutes in Israel.

“We see great strategic value in this research, given the increasing prevalence of inflammatory diseases throughout the region. We expect our work to lead to scientific breakthroughs in understanding and developing
therapies for inflammatory diseases,” said the head of the Hebrew University team, Ehud Razin, a professor of cancer research in the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC) at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine.