State of the Faculty Address 2020

7 The re-designation of CCMR better reflects the support it actually provides to animal users in furthering HKUMed’s cutting-edge research in the emerging field of comparative medicine for the study of health, illness and treatments of human and animal diseases, and particularly at the interface between the zoonotic and epidemiologic. Coinciding with this organisational transformation, a major expansion project was recently completed in October this year. The HK$101M project has converted the Dexter Man Building into a new animal experiment and holding facility in order to cope with our ever expanding biomedical animal research needs. At the other end of the experimental spectrum in health research, HKUMed’s Clinical Trials Centre (CTC) has initiated a series of new training courses to support investigator-initiated clinical studies (IISs). This type of studies is where bench science translates into clinical practice at the bedside. HKUMed has therefore tasked CTC and the Biostatistics and Clinical Research Methodology Unit (BCRMU) to establish an “IIS Facilitation Scheme”, through which a range of support services will be offered to clinical investigators. Training courses are the first of several components in this newly launched Scheme.