Mariano Marcos
State University

University of Notre Dame, NWU, MMSU tie up for scholarly exchanges, research collab

By Ian Paul Villanueva

Formalizing their intent to partner for student and faculty exchanges and pursue common research and academic goals, the University of Notre Dame (ND), Northwestern University (NWU), and Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on July 21.

The three institutions agreed to conduct future faculty and student exchanges, joint conferences, and research program collaborations. A focal point of the partnership is maternal-fetal health research, an area of expertise that ND brings to the collaboration.

Signing on behalf of the three universities were Dr. Kristine Joy Chua (ND Director of Reproductive and Evaluation Laboratory), Dr.  Maria Liza Nicolas (NWU Executive Vice President), and Dr. Virgilio Julius P. Manzano Jr. (MMSU President).
 

The MOU signing is part of Dr. Chua’s ongoing activities in the university. She has also delivered a special lecture on maternal-fetal stress biology on July 9 at the MMSU Center for Flexible Learning, gathering learners from the Colleges of Medicine, Arts and Sciences, and Health Sciences.

Since July 10, she has led the collection of research specimens at the Gov. Roque B. Ablan Sr. Memorial Hospital, alongside MMSU researchers and students.

A training workshop on biospecimen data collection and processing is set for July 22, while a culminating program will cap her month-long MMSU visit on July 28. The activities of Dr. Chua in the university were spearheaded and hosted by the Center for Histomodeling and Biocomputing in Applied Biomedical Research and the Cellular and Molecular Medical Research