A delegation of nine people headed by General Michael Dugan, president and chief executive officer of the American National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), visited the Institute for Medical Statistics and Epidemiology (IMSE, director Prof. A. Neiß) at the TU Munich at the beginning of October. They came in order to get an idea of the status of research at the Sylvia Lawry Centre. The visitors were so impressed by the biggest MS database worldwide, which has been formed at the Centre, that they agreed to generously sponsor the research projects.
During its one-day stay in Munich the delegation, consisting of members of the NMSS and internationally renowned researchers, were welcomed by Prof. Arnulf Melzer, Vice-President of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
In his speech, Prof. Melzer explained both the visions and the scientific and social mission of the TUM. He emphasized that successful spin-off companies such as Trium Analysis Online GmbH, which arose from the IMSE, under the management of Dr. Martin Daumer and Michael Scholz, strengthen the international reputation of the Technical University.
Together with IMSE, the young Munich company won the award for the biggest current MS research project of the last year and brought the Sylvia Lawry Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research (SLCMSR) to the Isar. Prof. Melzer emphasized that the TUM did not only favour such new foundations, according to the American example, but actively support them. He praised the self-initiative of the young businessmen and said: "The Sylvia Lawry Centre is a brilliant example of an international, explicitly interdisciplinary research institution which is based on the co-operation between the university and a spin-off company ".
The President of the NMSS, General Michael Dugan, assured the Sylvia Lawry Centre of further financial support. The Centre is sponsored by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) and other national MS societies like the NMSS and the German Multiple Sclerosis Society (DMSG) as well as by international foundations and private donors.
The TUM Vice-President, Prof. Melzer, then went on and lauded the work of the researchers at the institute with the words: "All of us work on advancing science and all of us want to find means and ways to improve the life of the people." It is hoped that the working conditions at the Centre will improve soon. The Centre is currently bursting at the seams and is urgently looking for new facilities, which adequately reflect its importance, somewhere within the campus of the TUM.
The Sylvia Lawry Centre of Multiple Sclerosis Research (SLCMSR), founded in 2001 under the management of Prof. Dr. Albrecht Neiß due to an initiative of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF), has set itself the goal to accelerate the development of drugs in the future and to make them more cost-effective. To achieve this goal, there are already data of more than 9000 patients with nearly 35 000 patient years available and all big pharmaceutical industries and also a huge part of the most important academic research groups have contributed with their trial data to this data pool. At present the biggest MS database of the world is arising at the SLCMSR.
Source: Sylvia Lawry Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research (SLCMSR) 10/25/02
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