Scientists at the University of Dundee have received some £30 million in UK government funding to further their research which could help unlock treatments for a number of diseases including Motor Neurone Disease and Crohn’s. The research team in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, will use the funding to bolster its cell biology research centre over the next five years with a focus on improving understanding of the processes within cells that could be key to the development of innovative treatments for a number of diseases.
The team has a strong track record in the development of treatments. Working with companies including GlaxoSmithKline, the team was central to developing a drug now widely used to treat melanoma. A drug for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease is also in clinical trials as a result of work done by the team. Dundee’s unit has been a part of the development and clinical approval of over 40 drugs that are now widely used to treat patients, attracting almost £60 million in private investment.
News of the funding was made ahead of an address by the UK government’s Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle at the Universities UK Conference of University Leaders held at the University of Reading. “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,” Kyle said.
Welcoming the funding, Professor Dario Alessi, Director of the MRC-PPU said: “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.”
Universities UK also used its conference to release a study setting out the full scope of the economic impact of the UK’s higher education sector. The study: The Economic Impact of Higher Education, Teaching, Research and Innovation, which was carried out by London Economics, indicates that for every £1 of public money invested in the higher education sector across the UK, £14 is put back in the economy. The report concludes that the total economic impact of the UK higher education sector on the UK economy is more than £265 billion.
“These figures make a strong case for viewing universities as another part of the UK’s growth infrastructure, and one which can deliver economic and social benefits more quickly and effectively than others,” said Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews and President of Universities UK.
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