NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – University College Dublin and biomedical outsource development firm ICON have struck a partnership under which ICON will support a genomics fellowship, a science center, and research programs at UCD, the company said today.
ICON, which is headquartered in Dublin, said today that it has established the ICON Newman Fellowship in Genomics, a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science and the UCD Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory.
The first winner of the ICON Newman Fellowship is Colm Ryan, a bioinformatics researcher who is studying how inherited variants control gene expression, particularly in cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
ICON also said it will become a lead benefactor for the UCD Science Centre, a 67,000-square-meter facility.
ICON and UCD also plan to work together on ways to enhance drug development, potentially including tailored teaching programs and internships in clinical research that will be available in Ireland and internationally through UCD's university partners.
ICON said that the partnership "supports a shared vision for transforming research, teaching, training and innovation in the sciences in Ireland and aims to strengthen the ties between academic research and industry."
"The partnership is built on creating an environment that will inspire future generations to engage in science, supporting Ireland's efforts to develop as an important centre for research and development," ICON CEO Ciaran Murray said in a statement.
ICON specializes in the strategic development, management, and analysis of programs that support clinical development of therapeutics from compound selection through Phase I-IV studies.