BEIJING, July 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amgen Scholars Program (ASP) at Tsinghua University, funded by the Amgen Foundation, held its opening ceremony at Tsinghua campus.

Last September, Tsinghua University was selected as the first and only Chinese host institution for ASP, one of the 24 world-leading universities including Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Cambridge and others.

ASP is an undergraduate summer research program, initiated and supported by the Amgen Foundation through a 16-year, $74 million commitment. This 8 to 10-week practice-based program aims to recruit outstanding undergraduates from across the globe, who have strong interests in biomedical research, life sciences or related fields, to conduct cutting-edge research at world-class laboratories and institutions.

Tsinghua Amgen Scholars Program is hosted by the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS). Global recruitment of Tsinghua Amgen Scholars began last November, and the admission process was highly competitive. By February 1 this year, nearly 300 applications from over 50 countries were received and only 15 candidates were selected through intensive evaluation by the faculties for Class 2019. They come from 11 countries (the United States, Germany, Portugal, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and others.) and are currently studying at top universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Nagoya University and others.

Starting from July 1, the Tsinghua Amgen Scholars will work under close supervision of a SPS faculty member on specific research projects over an 8-week period. As research at SPS is highly interdisciplinary across a comprehensive set of therapeutic modalities of small molecule, biologics, gene therapy, cell therapy and medical device, these Scholars' projects will span a wide spectrum of topics in fundamental biology, chemistry, pharmaceutical technologies and disease understanding and targeting. In addition, they will participate in diverse academic activities including visiting the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute (GHDDI) in Beijing, a transformative drug discovery and translational platform aiming to tackle the world's most pressing disease challenges for developing countries, and attending an ASP symposium at the National University of Singapore, where they will meet their peers and hear from leading scientists. They will also have the opportunities to experience the rich culture of the University as well as the city of Beijing.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.sps.tsinghua.edu.cn/amgenscholars.html

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SOURCE Tsinghua University