A SCOTTISH science institute will receive nearly £30 million in funding from the UK Government to help with vital research into new treatments for an array of diseases.
Dundee-based researchers, who have a track record of developing groundbreaking treatments for diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s, have secured funding to carry on their work for another five years.
The Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (PPU), based at the University of Dundee, will receive nearly £30m of funding allocated from UKRI’s Medical Research Council, it has been announced on Wednesday.
The research team has a 200-strong scientific community of staff and students who are using cutting-edge technology and biochemistry to explore how signals transmitted within the body’s cells are disrupted.
It is hoped that further understanding the processes within cells could be the key to unlocking the scientific basis of innovative treatments for a range of diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to Crohn’s and Coeliac disease.
Professor Dario Alessi, director of the MRC PPU, said the funding will help the institute to continue its vital research in developing new treatments.
He said: “We are incredibly grateful for the long-term support that our Unit has received from the MRC over the last 34 years. This has enabled our researchers to tackle the most important questions and greatly contributed to our understanding of how derailment of biological pathways causes human diseases including neurodegeneration, diabetes, cancer, and immune dysfunction.
“Our mission for the next five years will be to work with leading research centres, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies to translate our discoveries into clinical progress and accelerate drug discovery.
“Whilst doing this research we aim to provide our staff with a unique training opportunity working in a collaborative multidisciplinary environment paying attention to improving culture and development best practices.”
Academics at the university have been working closely with businesses in the industry and have been instrumental in the development and clinical approval of more than 40 drugs that are now widely used to treat patients.
Announcing the funding, Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle (below) said: “The value of our universities, to the economy and to the whole of society, cannot be overstated.
“As we embark on a decade of national renewal, the higher education sector has a profound role to play in every piece of work we’ll need to do, to build a Britain that delivers for working people: from seizing the potential of clean energy to rebuilding the NHS. I will always champion our universities.
“They are society’s most powerful engines for innovation, aspiration, economic growth and the creation of better lives for all – which is why investing in their work, like this £30m in funding, is so important.”
