AMI assists with the future of Asthma Research

17 August 2004

AMI assists with the future of Asthma Research

The new premises of the Malaghan Institute, now a state of the art biomedical research centre, will be officially opened at a function tonight by Governor-General Dame Sylvia Cartwright. The facility is housed at Victoria University of Wellington, and will provide a cutting edge environment for the training of New Zealand’s best science students.

As New Zealand’s only independent medical research centre, the Malaghan Institute is proud of the fact they are free to ‘chart their own course’ without government or commercial influence.

AMI Insurance support the Institute through sponsorship because they strongly believe in the direction and progress the Institute is making in their research of Asthma, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis and Infectious Diseases.

“Our commitment to New Zealand and New Zealanders is strong and deep” says John Balmforth, Chief Executive Officer, AMI Insurance. “As a company we live and work in almost every community, and the promise that we make to our customers is to care, assist and deliver. We hugely admire the dedication of the Institute to saving lives of New Zealanders’ through research and being leaders in their field as well as the innovation they continually show in their work.”

In recent years, the Malaghan Institute research teams have made a number of highly significant discoveries, and more developments are on the way.

For example, the Asthma Research team has discovered key components of bacteria that show efficacy in the suppression of the inflammatory effects of Asthma. When inhaled these components can stimulate the immune system to fight an asthmatic response. This research discovery has been taken into the drug development stage, and may lead to an exciting new asthma treatment.

The new AMI Insurance Asthma Laboratory will make a major difference in how research is co-ordinated says Professor Le Gros, Group Leader Asthma.

“For the first time we can co-locate all of our Asthma research programmes in a specialised laboratory which is purpose designed for our research. Previously, researchers were scattered about, which is not only inefficient but limits the collaboration that is at the heart of good science” he said.

AMI financially supports the Malaghan Institute in a number of ways including sponsoring the annual Lollipop Appeal, the major fundraising campaign held in February.

ENDS

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