Spectrum Institute of Science & Technology collaborates with leading universities & research organisations

As Spectrum Institute of Science & Technology (SIST) walks into its sixteenth year of excellence in higher education by expanding its horizons and strengthening the ties with some global scientific community. SISTs’ partnerships with India, United Kingdom and Australia has been fruitful for the aspiring young scientists of Sri Lanka. The new chapter of the SIST journey involves collaboration with a number of global organization, two of which are Accelerated Drug Development – Karolinska Institute, Sweden and Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands.

SIST’s vision is to increase the Scientific Human Capital of Sri Lanka, which will contribute to national research and development thereby bringing Sri Lanka to the international arena of science and technology. The collaborations are geared to this end, whereby SIST will be able to offer a variety of undergraduate science degrees, international internship opportunities for students, placements for Masters and PhD programs abroad and collaborative research in Sri Lanka. Through these collaborations students will have the opportunity of choosing Masters programs in a variety of topics such as Biomedicine, Molecular life sciences, toxicology, bioinformatics, public health, biotechnology, biochemistry, infectious disease, microbiology, food microbiology, dietetics, sports nutrition, cancer immunology and many other cutting edge scientific disciplines. Furthermore, these collaborations will enable undergraduate students to engage in international research projects contributing to a stronger career in science.

Accelerated Drug Development – Karolinska Institute, Sweden

Accelerated Drug Development AB, Sweden is based at theprestigious Karolinska Institute, Sweden and was created to promote further development of the technology, prove clinical value of the technology and consequent implementation D~sense technology in routine clinical practice. The D~sense technology has been developed at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC) at the Karolinska Institute over the last 12 years by a team of scientists and it builds on frontline knowledge and understanding of tumor biology. This technology will enable clinicians to predict a patient response to a treatment and will allow optimization of a treatment leading to better cure, minimal side effects and maximized cost efficiency. The concept is similar to the test of bacterial antibiotic sensitivity. This technology will also enable personalized treatment for patients which will in turn revolutionize the field of cancer therapy.

D~Sense technology shows very promising results in the controlled laboratory environment of the developer with several scientific papers being published, but its value in routine clinical laboratories remains to be determined through a set of carefully performed research projects and clinical trials in tight connection with oncological clinics. SIST will collaborate on the many levels of these project with the goal of bringing D~Sense technology from bench to bed side thereby translating research into commercial use for the improvement of patients. The operations in Srilanka will commence on the 27th January 2017.

SIST takes this concept to India, England and Scotland in the coming months to work with government and non-government research centers.

Proposed Center of Excellence for Agriculture with Wageningen University & Research (UR), Netherlands.

Ranked number 1 in Agriculture in the world,Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is a collaboration between Wageningen University and the Wageningen Research foundation. The mission of this institute is to ‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’. They work in over a 100 countries around the world in the food and environmental sector. Wageningen UR works on its core strength of collaboration between specialized research institutes and the university. They also believe in interdisciplinary collaborative efforts between natural and social sciences which brings together experts in the field enabling scientific breakthrough and modern academic content. Wageningen UR works in 3 core areas; Food and Food production, Living environment and Health, lifestyle and livelihood. SIST is at the final stages of designing and implementing this collaboration with WUR

Another excellent feature that SIST provides for it’s students is a vibrant Students Society.

Spectrum Students’ Society is an active student club run entirely by the undergraduate students of SIST. They focus one avenues like Community Service, Environmental Service, Sports and Performing Arts with the objective of serving the society while building fellowship among the students and developing their personal, professional and Leadership skills. SIST is a proud institute in helping the students in every possible way to mould themselves as better citizens.

Take Home

In addition to these two collaborations there are many others currently in the pipeline with negotiations about future directions. The underlining fact in all these global partnerships are the leverage that students of Spectrum will get in terms of a recognized global foreign degree, post graduate degree and career opportunities. SIST takes pride in placing “service to students” over business, and will continue to make the scientific world a global village for our Sri Lankan students.