Heba Press/. And MA
The British University of Sheffield (270 km north of London) has opened the Gene Therapy Innovation Center, led by Moroccan professor Maimoun Azouz.
This center of excellence, inaugurated on Wednesday in the presence of Princess Anne, sister of King Charles III, is the result of long work in the field of research and aims to advance the development of new clinical gene therapies through production of clinical grade vectors, in addition to providing translational support and regulatory advice.
During the opening ceremony, which saw the presence of the Moroccan Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hakim Hajjaoui, Professor Azouz highlighted that gene therapy is considered a promising therapeutic option for more than 7,000 rare diseases. and hereditary currently incurable.
“Our goal is to provide patients with access to advanced treatments that were previously unimaginable,” he said.
The Sheffield Centre, which also aims to expand gene therapy research in the UK and around the world, aspires to deepen knowledge of this type of treatment in order to develop new treatments for various diseases. To achieve this, the Center relies on a network of researchers and partners across the United Kingdom.
The University of Sheffield is internationally recognized for its pioneering research into neurodegenerative diseases. Thanks to its state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment and its extensive clinical database, the university has today become one of the leading players in the field of gene therapy.
Professor Azouz, who holds a PhD in neuropharmacology from the Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg, worked at the Gene Therapy Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, before joining Oxford Biomedica PLC in 2000 as a senior scientist, and was appointed director of the neuroscience department in 2003.
He then joined the University of Sheffield in 2006, where he served as Head of the Department of Translational Neuroscience, before heading the Department of Research and Innovation.
The Moroccan researcher owns several research projects in the field of gene therapy and the treatment of highly specialized neurodegenerative diseases, and has received numerous international awards in recognition of his work.
