THE Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre (SIDC) will be signing memoranda of understanding (MoU) with three global multinational companies in areas of disease genomics, theranostics biomarker discovery and diagnostic tests development.
Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Roland Sagah Wee Inn said the companies included Pacific Biosciences (USA), Agilent Technologies (USA) and Numares AG (Germany).
Apart from that, he said, SIDC will enter into research collaborations with the Health Ministry, the Australian National Phenome Centre, Amili of Singapore and Monash University on communicable diseases, biomarker discovery, and recombinant probiotic technology development for the prevention of disease infection, as well as utilisation of indigenous food as potential pre- and pro-symbiotics for improving immunological defence.
“I know these are big words for non-scientists, but rest assured that all these big words will translate into better health and quality of life in the long run,” he said when delivering his winding-up speech in the state legislative assembly (DUN) sitting today.
Meanwhile, the Sarawak Microelectronics Design (SMD) Semiconductor Sdn Bhd through the ministry is now venturing into talent development in Integrated Circuit (IC) Design, IC Layout Design, Wafer Fabrication Process and Wafer Testing.
The collaboration is between Melexis of Belgium, X-FAB of Germany and Synopsys of California, and Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS) and Sarawak Skills as training providers.
“These will provide wide opportunities for our local graduates who are passionate about microelectronics and innovation in Integrated Circuit (IC) design. I urge our youths and our graduates to seize these opportunities made available at our doorstep,” he said.
Sagah also said the Sarawak Science Centre is planned to begin in the fourth-quarter this year, which will be a state of the art centre in the region to intensify interest in learning science towards Sarawak’s goal in creating a science literate society.
“We are also exploring opportunities with other science and technological centres around the world through professional associations such as the Asia Pacific Network of Science and Technology Centres (ASPAC) to keep abreast with current trends and interests in science as well as for possible exchange of exhibits and talents,” he added.
In addition, he said, the Sarawak government has approved the development of a Research Information Management System (RIMS) to digitise 15 years of valuable research data for current and future scientific studies, as well as to develop carbon credit for carbon trading.
