LSTM's Director, Professor Janet Hemingway, today commended the individuals and organisations that have helped to make 2008 a year of great progress for LSTM:
"During January, staff began to occupy the first three floors of the new Centre for Tropical and Infectious Diseases. This £26 million state of the art research facility is built around the principle of developing products by taking a scientific idea 'from molecule to man' and is the cornerstone of our fight against some of the world’s most devastating diseases.
"Opening the building, HRH The Princess Royal paid tribute to LSTM’s 'astonishing workforce' and spoke of the role that CTID will play at 'the cutting edge' of the battle against tropical disease.
"CTID takes us to a new level as one of the leading centres of excellence in tropical medicine in the world. The North West Development Agency and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Objective One programme were both major supporters of the project and we owe them a debt of gratitude. The fit out of the final floor is complete, thanks to a new £2 million grant from the Wellcome Trust and a supplementary grant of £2.4 million from ERDF. We are also conducting a much needed renovation of our existing buildings, some of which date back to the early 1900s.
"In March, we received a $30 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the control and treatment of malaria in pregnancy in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium is led from Liverpool and its five year programme is now well underway. The products of this research will directly benefit the 50 million women every year who face exposure to malaria whilst pregnant.
"During the year our long established travel clinic was registered as a standalone company, Well Travelled Clinics Ltd. WTC is investing in new, more customer friendly facilities here in Liverpool and in a new clinic opening in Chester early next year, with plans for further expansion. Although a commercial enterprise, the clinic reinvests its profits back into LSTM.
"We continued to enhance our academic prowess by making a number of new senior and professorial appointments and Dr Bertie Squire, Reader in Clinical Tropical Medicine was elected President of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
"The year has ended on a real high note with our consulting subsidiary, Liverpool Associates in Tropical Health (LATH), being awarded a £10 million contract to manage a programme of work supporting a new Health Research Capacity Strengthening initiative in Malawi. Led by the National Research Council of Malawi, the initiative is a 5 year programme supported by the Wellcome Trust, the UK Department for International Development and the International Development Research Centre (Canada).
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters, large and small, and our dedicated and committed workforce for helping to make this such a momentous year and I look forward to building on that progress in 2009 and beyond.”
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