Partners with a purpose: (from left) Dr Anto Cordelia, UTAR president Prof Datuk Dr Ewe Hong Tat and Prof Vimal at the award ceremony.
A PARTNERSHIP that aims to investigate the use of personalised nutrition plans to combat prevalent health risks like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Malaysia has won recognition recently.
University of Reading in partnership with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) emerged the winner of the United Kingdom-Malaysia Education Institutional Partnership Award 2023.
Their collaboration saw them establishing the “Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics Research and Training Unit (N²RTU)” – the first of its kind in Malaysia with a focus on knowledge and technology transfer in the emerging field of nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics via research and training.
Set up under the UTAR Centre for Biomedical and Nutrition Research (CBNR), the N²RTU has contributed exceptional results and shown significant value creation, while capitalising the best of UK and Malaysia expertise, a press release read.
It added that besides providing high-impact contribution to society, the project helped to bridge the gap between industry, academia, government, and society.
Led by UTAR Faculty of Science (FSc) assistant professor Dr Anto Cordelia Tanislaus Antony Dhanapal and the UK principal investigator and University of Reading Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) deputy director Prof Vimal Karani, the N²RTU recognises that different individuals often have different responses to the same nutrients due to their genes and lifestyles.
Dr Anto Cordelia said the N²RTU aims to strengthen partnerships and capital building with the transfer of technology and knowledge on nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics research.
“I look forward to expanding the unit and exploring collaboration with partner countries to take this to the next level and move toward precision nutrition,” she said.
The UK-Malaysia Educational Institutional Partnership Award 2023 is an award category by the British Council in partnership with the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce as part of the prestigious Business Excellence Awards.
The award was presented on June 8 in Kuala Lumpur.
Other shortlisted finalists for the category were the Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore in partnership with Universiti Malaya; the University of Glasgow in partnership with Universiti Sains Malaysia; The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in partnership with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; and the University of Surrey in partnership with the Malaysian Primatological Society.
Joining the N²RTU project from Malaysia are co-investigators, CBNR chairperson Dr Eddy Cheah Seong Guan, FSc deputy dean for R&D and Postgraduate Programmes Dr Phoon Lee Quen, and FSc academic Dr L. Annaletchumy.
The associate partners are Health Ministry Institute for Medical Research Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Research Centre (NMCRC) head Dr Mohd Fairulnizal Md Noh and Nutrition Society of Malaysia vice president Dr Mahenderan Appukutty.
