Symposium on “Active Learning and Innovation Strategy” Houston, Texas

A group of academic delegates from University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJP)including Prof. SampathAmaratunga, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ranil De Silva, Director, World Class University Grant Project, Dr. U. Anura Kumara, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, Prof. M. Pathmalal, Head/Department of Zoology and Mr. RukmalWeerasinghe, Head/Department of Entrepreneurship participated for a symposium on ‘Active Learning and Innovation Strategy’ at Houston, Texas, USA from June 26th to June 28th, 2018, organized byProf. Reginald DesRoches, Dean, School of Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas, and VidyajyotiProf. BandulaWijay, Ambassador for Science Technology and Innovation of Sri Lanka, who is an Engineer by profession and one of the pioneering inventors of the present day vascularstents with more than 30 US patents top his name in the United States and internationally. The symposium was organized at Rice University, Houston, Texas (World Rank: 99) following a visit to Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center (the largest medical complex in the world), MD Anderson Cancer Center,Texas Medical Center accelerator (TMCx) for Device Innovation andAccess DX Laboratory, for the establishment of business incubators in USJP linking academia and industry and to gain firsthand experience in active learning and novel research and development strategies of the world’s top Universities and Research Institutes.

.University of Sri Jayewardenepura extends our sincere gratitude to Professor Bandula Wijay and Mrs Wijay for their genuine commitment and invaluable service for developing our motherland. Further, it extends our gratitude to Sri Lankan Community in Texas, Washington DC, USA and all the officials in hosted institutions for making an amazing program for our delegation.

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

A meeting was organized at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Global Rank No. 1 for cancer care) to establish research collaborations between University of Sri Jayewardenepura and MD Anderson Cancer Center with Prof. Varsha Gandhi, (Professor, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer), who is an inventor for treating hematological malignancies with nucleoside analog drugs and a patent holder for cancer research.

Business forum at the Embassy of Sri Lanka, Washington DC, USA

A business forum was organized at the Embassy of Sri Lanka, Washington DC, USA to establish public private partnerships based on value added natural products withthe industrialistsalong with the participation of officials from National Institute of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Authority (FDA), and Johns Hopkins Medical University.

(Above Images: Prof. Ranil De Silva presenting the presentation on, Establishment of Business Incubators based on Natural Products leading to nutrigenomics linking Industry & Academia at the forum with the industrialists, Embassy officials, officials from National Institute of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Authority (FDA), and Johns Hopkins Medical University)

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Binghamton University, New York

As a consequence of the long lasting academic collaboration with Prof. Eric Hoffman, Associate Dean, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Prof. Yetrib Hathout, Professor, Prof Ranil de Silva established a training opportunity in bio markers and “Exon Skipping Gene Therapy” for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), where to date successful phase two personalized medicine clinical trials are being conducted in USA. Thereby,USJP will be the pioneers in South Asia to implement personalized medicine therapies for DMD.
(Prof. Ranil De Silva presenting the guest lecture on, “Natural Products as Nutraceuticals in Neurodegenerative and Neuromuscular Disorders: Prospective Serum Bio marker Study Linking East and West”)