As one of Thailand – US CDC joint initiatives, the Training Center for Excellence in Medical Sciences (TEMs)  was officially launched on the 6th June 2022.   Housed at the Department of Medical Sciences, the ceremony was presided over by Dr. Supakit Sirilak, Director General of the Department of Medical Sciences, and Dr. Deb Houry, Acting Principle Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC).

The event was attended by 91 participants, consisting of the delegates from DMSc, U.S. CDC, CDC [Viet Nam,  Indonesia,  Laos,  Philippines, and ],  trainees from Viet Nam, Laos, and Indonesia, as well as key development partners.

As part of Laboratory workforce development carried out by Thailand, the Regional Diagnostic strengthen (RDS) aims to strengthen laboratory capacity to detect, prevent, and prepare for public health emergencies in Thailand and the region.

In doing so the TEMs have been established as a training facility for laboratory capacity building. Since January 2022, TEMs have organized four national and regional workshops, including Sanger sequencing, Next-generation sequencing, and Bioinformatics analysis.

The participants were laboratory personnel from Thailand [the Department of Medical Sciences network & the Department of Disease Control], and the public health laboratories from Viet Nam and Indonesia.

TEMs will be working closely with the Regional Public Health Laboratory Network in implementing the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), Detect 1 [National Laboratory Systems].

This facility is supported by the U.S. CDC through the Division of Global Health Protection program (DGHP), TUC.