Scots Universities Given £13.1m to Support Medical Science Research

07 July 10

Three Scots universities have been awarded a total of £13.1 million towards tackling some of the most difficult challenges facing medical science.

Edinburgh University received £3.5m, Glasgow University £4.8m and Dundee University £4.8m from the Wellcome-Wolfson Foundation, it was announced yesterday.

The funding will create a new centre to support research in the emerging discipline of systems medicine and will include teaching and research facilities at Edinburgh.

Systems medicine is revolutionising the way researchers try to understand and treat common diseases, by combining expertise in chemistry, physics, computer science, mathematics, genetics and medicine.

The new building at the Western General Hospital will link the three medical research centres that make up the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, which employs more than 500 scientists.

The university is in discussions with other potential funders to raise the £10m needed to complete the project, which it hopes will be ready by 2014.

Its director, professor Nick Hastie, said:

“This new building will bring together scientists and clinicians across the institute and will be vital for our goal to identify pathways underlying disease and to use this information for clinical benefit.”

Funding in Glasgow will go towards work by James Neil and Massimo Palmarini into the integration of veterinary and human virology in the Centre for Virus Research (CVR).

The centre will be located in a new building on the university’s Garscube Campus, which will enable researchers based there to share expertise, build upon existing collaborations and strengthen virus research capability in the UK.

The Medical Research Council is already investing £28m over five years to develop the Centre for Virus Research Professor Palmarini said: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive this award. It is an incredibly exciting time for virology research in Glasgow, and indeed in Scotland as a whole.

“This award will help us to shape our vision for the CVR and ultimately, achieve our goals.”

Dundee’s award will be put towards a £30m investment in large-scale university infrastructure projects and will help establish a new £12.5 Centre for Translational and Interdisciplinary Research at the College of Life Sciences that aims to double its capacity for drug discovery.

The centre is expected to cost about £12.5m in total. The university is currently developing proposals to complete the funding package needed.

The Herald, 07 July 2010 www.heraldscotland.com