Highlights of Life Sciences Announcements in 2009

From cannabis mouthsprays to ease the pain of cancer patients to the study of the eyesight of moles to understand human disorders, the range of research across Scotland’s life sciences sector is immense – and provides medical breakthroughs that have global implications.

Life sciences is one of Scotland's key industries, employing more than 30,000 people and contributing £3 billion to the economy.

Strategic partnerships make sector stronger

During 2009, while the potential of research on the behaviours of genes and proteins made headlines, behind the scenes Scotland’s life sciences sector was undergoing a subtle restructure - its cohesion further strengthened by a range of strategic partnerships bringing research, clinical practice and drug commercialisation together under the ‘bench to bedside’ co-operative culture of translational medicine.

Funding is the lifeblood of research and 2009 witnessed major grants being given to medical studies, from £1 million for the development of innovative medical technology which could change the way gene therapies are designed and delivered at the University of Dundee, to a major funding boost to the University of St Andrews to assist in its studies of viruses, immunity, vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

And Scottish universities have also been the recipient the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: close to $10 million to the University of Glasgow to fund the elimination of rabies in low-income countries; and £1 million to Edinburgh University to tackle childhood pneumonia.

Speeding up drug trials

Life sciences in Scotland has a strong tradition of co-operation and there have been many examples of researchers pooling their resources together.

An example of this is the Scottish Academic Health Sciences Collaboration which has been set up to integrate clinical trials across the 14 Health Boards to make the approval process for drug trials easier and faster – and attract more drug discovery companies to Scotland. It will also create around 250 cutting-edge research jobs and cement Scotland's reputation as a world leader in life sciences: particularly across a range of clinical disciplines, such as imaging, pharmacy, radiology and tissue banks over the next three years.

Another example cooperation was the opening of the new £11.6 million core research laboratory for the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration (TMRC) in Dundee.

The TMRC is a collaboration involving four of Scotland's leading universities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow), their corresponding health boards, Scottish Enterprise and global pharmaceutical company Wyeth (bought by Pfizer Inc. in 2009).

The partnership aims to raise the commercial profile of Scotland's translational research in five main therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, women's health, neurology, oncology and inflammation.

Another is the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) – a £77 million, five-year project that will underpin fundamental research into cell biology and drug discovery programmes.

Attracting talent to Scotland

It’s not just about pooling resources as Scotland continues to attract great talent from abroad as Professor Sir Philip Cohen’s Scottish Institute for ceLL Signalling (SCILLS) shows at Dundee University. It has already attracted leading researchers from Switzerland, Cambridge and California. No wonder as its Protein Ubiquitylation Unit is an area that Sir Philip expects to become the next big area of drug discovery for the pharmaceutical industry.

Scotland’s flagship life sciences project, Edinburgh BioQuarter, received a £24 million injection of funding to further accelerate growth in the flourishing life sciences sector to help it develop into one of the world’s top ten hubs for life sciences research and development.

It combines an internationally renowned university and medical school, a 900-bed hospital with a world class clinical trials centre, and a commercial research campus that will house some of the world’s leading biotech companies and provide an unrivalled location for translating medical discovery into clinical products whilst delivering significant economic impact.

Life science companies in Scotland have also been playing a part of the global stage with Livingston-based Touch Bionics, developer of the world’s first multi-articulating bionic hand, gaining international recognition with the launch of ProDigits, the first bionic finger and winning a silver medal in the 2009 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards.

Investment in Scotland continues

In addition to talent, Scotland also continued to attract investment. Global life sciences firm, Schering-Plough, announced it was spending half of its global $60 million investment programme at its Newhouse facility in Scotland which is its core site for research into the central nervous system.

In Inverness, Lifescan, the global company that’s part of the Johnson & Johnson group and is also Scotland’s largest life sciences company, announced a £11.1 million investment to manufacture a new product for monitoring blood glucose.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals also opened its multi-million pound Protein Therapeutics Laboratory research centre at Aberdeen University Aberdeen which will look into novel protein treatments for neuroscience, oncology, inflammation and metabolic diseases.

Other companies making investments during the year include Biofilm, Big DNA and Lab901. Biofilm, maker of thin strips thin films that can help people to stop snoring, spent £1 million on new facilities, while Big DNA made a £1.5 million investment in a new manufacturing facility to grow bacterial viruses called "bacteriophage" on special bacterial hosts cells. Lab901, the Scottish developer of innovative automation systems for the life sciences industry, plans to launch a new product for rapid testing of proteins.

Scotland has approximately 65 contract research organisations and this sector continues to expand, with Edinburgh-based Quintiles aiming to create 150 jobs in Scotland by 2011.

And, finally, in a poll to decide Scotland’s greatest contribution to the world to celebrate St Andrew’s Day, penicillin, the antibiotic discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, came top in the survey ahead of Scotch whisky and the telephone!

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