University of Technology (UTech) president Professor Errol Morrison (seated), examines a microscope that was among the lab equipment handed over to the institution Tuesday. Looking on (from left) are Greg Allen, representative of the CAST-UTech Alumni Association in Toronto; head of UTech's School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Dr Sarafadeen Abebayo, and Trevor Miller. In background is Collin Gyles, acting head of the Department of Science and Mathematics in the Faculty of Health and Applied Science. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

THE University of Technology's (UTech) Faculty of Health and Applied Science has received lab equipment valued at US$5 million that is expected to enhance the institution's research and teaching capacity.

The donation was made available through the CAST-UTech Alumni Association Toronto Chapter, which sourced the equipment from the Johnson and Johnson's pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The lab equipment include microscopes, fraction collectors, desiccators, digital density meters, spectrophotometer, grinder, analytical balances, sonicator, melting pot apparatus, rotary evaporator, separatory flask, hundreds of pipettes and beakers as well as specialised software, hardware and books.

"Development of students in this area requires highly specialised equipment. They are not things that we get easily on the market because they are custom-made," Dr Sarafadeen Abebayo, head of the School of Pharmacy and Health Science in the faculty, explained. "We will be able to analyse the quality of products in the market. We will be able to make products. Apart from that if you bring a plant to us, we can analyse it in the lab here. We will extract it and do something that we call activity guided fractionation, where we extract the plant, we test it, looking for specific compounds."

Dr Abebayo, who expressed his appreciation to the alumni for the valuable equipment, said the donation would also increase the school's ability to reach out to other companies.
Meanwhile, Trevor Miller, an alumnus from the Toronto chapter, said the equipment was secured after it was discovered that Pfizer was about to close one of its facilities in Toronto.

"They were either going to dump the equipment or find some other institution to donate it to," he said. "We hope that all the students will use the equipment as the root to becoming future scientists, so that they can be people who make Jamaica very proud."

The donation was also welcomed by UTech president, Professor Errol Morrison, who said that equipment would be valuable to the delivery of quality education and would also ensure that the students were using industry equivalent equipment.