On May 21, 2012, the Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences, in collaboration with the Higher Center of Research at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), organized a day entitled “Neurosciences & Biotechnologies: Research Advances and Perspectives”.

The inauguration ceremony began with the welcome speech of Dr. Samia Abi Jaoude, followed by a speech by Prof. Marc Landry, team leader of “Cellular Mechanisms of Central Pain Sensitization” at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, Head of International Relations at the Faculty of Biology at the University of Bordeaux Segalen, and Coordinator of the TEMPUS project. Prof. Landry presented an overview of the TEMPUS project on the ISIS Master in Neuroscience and Biotechnology, which is a two years Master program funded by the European TEMPUS program, available in both English and French. It is a joint Master Degree that organizes inter-university cooperation between Euro-Mediterranean countries (France, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Lebanon). He also pointed out that the objectives of this Master are as follows: acquiring high-level innovative and interdisciplinary training in neuroscience, manipulating theoretical concepts together with a broad range of experimental methods used in Biotechnology and Biomedicine, mastering competences required to implement and use modern techniques, conceiving and conducting individual projects in Neuroscience and Biotechnology, and, finally, developing connections and networking in Neuroscience across the Mediterranean area.

Prof. Aref Soufi, coordinator of the TEMPUS project in Lebanon introduced, in turn, the national bureau of TEMPUS in Lebanon, stating that “… it is a European program operating in Lebanon since 2003 and which, throughout 39 funded projects in Lebanon, has considerably contributed to the modernization of higher education in Lebanon, in terms of renovation of programs and strengthening of institutional capacities of the global system of higher education”.

At the end of the inauguration ceremony, Rev. Fr. Hady Mahfouz, President of USEK, considered in his speech that “… the importance of research projects, admittedly, does not only consist in going beyond the borders and, consequently, the internalization of spirits, but also, most importantly, in the pooling of human, academic and scientific resources, through dealing with themes of high topicality in the field of sciences”. Fr. Mahfouz also shed light on the research jointly conducted for seven years on autism by our Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences and the INSERM Unit at the University of François Rabelais de Tours; plus the research jointly conducted on Parkinson Disease, by our Faculty of Medicine and the University Hospital of Notre Dame de Secours in Jbeil”.