US navy eyes PNG research facilities

National, Normal

PAPUA New Guinea has been chosen to be the base for the US Navy Medical Research Unit (Namru) in the Pacific.
Namru delegates have already visited two premier learning institutions, the University of Papua New Guinea’s school of medicine and health sciences (SMHS) in Port Moresby and the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) in  Goroka  where  they hoped to establish their research unit.
They visited the SMHS on Wednesday where they were taken on a tour around research laboratories  and  the  medical library by  various school deans.
Their tour was to find out what the SMHS were  capable of  and   the capacity it had in carrying out medical research.
Executive dean Sir Isi Kevau was  happy  that the SMHS was one institution chosen as it would bring much development and benefits to the students and the  institution  itself.
“I’ve a got an open mind about this. The world is flat, when it comes  to  medical science you’ve got to have a partner  to  do  medical research,” he said.
He said SMHS would work in  collaboration with the Namru if they decide to establish their unit in  PNG.
Sir Isi and his counterparts, Prof John Vince,  Lohi Matainaho and Dr Victor Temple compiled an information guide containing an overview of the school and research activities it was engaged in  for Namru.
“We’ve put together a list of researches done  in  PNG. There’s the lab research, clinical research and  field research. IMR does  all of those, UPNG does only  clinical research,” he explained.
He said the purpose of having the Namru based  here was to study and find out what sort of problems (medical and others) Americans living and working  in the Pacific might encounter.
He said Namru could help with researches  in diseases  like malaria, tuberculosis and others in PNG.
Sir Isi said that part of the benefits from that would be the development and growth of local researchers.