Vilnius University will together with UMC Utrecht, Utrecht University and the VU Santaros Klinikum establish an Advanced Disease Modeling Center, with funding from the Lithuanian government. Vilnius specifically selected us for our strategic research themes and advanced techniques. A total of five of these International Centers of Competence were awarded, with a planned total investment of 40 million euros.
The VU delegation, which visited Utrecht last week, consisted of Dr. Karolis Ažukaitis, Vice Dean for Science and Innovation of the Faculty of Medicine and representatives from the Life Sciences Center and the VU Central Research Administration. They were hosted by Prof. Dr. Elly Hol, the Vice Dean for Research at UMC Utrecht. The strategy for establishing the ADMC, its management model, the mechanisms for attracting and selecting talented international researchers, and planned joint scientific projects were discussed.
A moment from the visit of Vilnius University representatives to Utrecht.
During the meetings with various Utrecht research groups topics close to the priorities of ADMC were discussed – regenerative medicine, spatial omics, translational oncology, neurosciences, immunology, cardiology. Opportunities were also discussions with the vice-deans of research of the UU faculties of Science, Veterinary Medicine and of the strategic theme of Life Sciences. The mutual motivation to establish a long-term strategic partnership was emphasized.
In this Advanced Disease Modeling Center around four new international research groups will be created, and highly qualified researchers from Lithuania and abroad will be involved. They will work in the recently completed VU building Center for Medical Sciences, located next to their hospital. Researchers will come to Utrecht for periods of work (paid for by the grant). One of the exclusive areas of ADMC is alternative disease modeling technologies, which will allow reducing or completely eliminating the use of laboratory animals and creating personalized diagnostic and treatment solutions. We will jointly apply for new external funding in the future. Vilnius is just like Utrecht part of the COIMBRA group and Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine.
