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US biochemical firm launches China community laboratory

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-16 16:43

XI'AN: Biogen Idec Inc., a United States biochemical firm, is to open a community laboratory in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, company sources said Friday.

The lab, to be established in collaboration with Northwest University in Xi'an, was Biogen Idec's first community lab outside the United States and would open to hundreds of secondary school students in Shaanxi Province every year, said the company's chief operating officer, Robert Hamm.

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The students would learn how science and technology could be used in the discovery of new drugs, he said.

They could carry out experiments, such as extracting DNA from cells and studying how cancer develops, said Gunther Winkler, project manager from Biogen Idec.

According to a memorandum of understanding signed on Thursday, Northwest University will be responsible for the lab's management and daily operation, while Biogen Idec will donate a complete set of lab equipment and provide training and technical assistance to the lab instructors and technicians.

A scholarship will be awarded each year for three students to spend two weeks at Biogen Idec's US community lab as interns.

Biogen Idec is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It set up its China office in Shanghai in 2007.

Within the US, Biogen Idec's community labs have benefited more than 10,000 students, mostly aged from 14 to 18, and their science teachers.