Scotland's Biosciences
The Scottish partners involved in the TMRC have a collective world class reputation in the fields of life sciences and medical research. Scotland is home to a significant proportion of the world’s most frequently cited scientists. Scotland and Wyeth together will make a real difference to patient’s lives.
Scotland is proud of achievements such as:
Breakthroughs like anaesthesia, CT scans, ultra-sound, MRIs, the discovery of the p53 gene, Dolly the Sheep and signal transduction all emerged from Scotland. Scotland has been home to some of the greatest scientists such as Professor Lane (who discovered the p53 cancer suppressor gene), Professor I Wilmut (inventor of Dolly the Sheep), and Professor Sir Philip Cohen (whose work with signal transduction has made him one of the most respected and most cited cancer specialists in the world).
The University of Dundee has collaborated with six of the world’s leading pharma companies in one of the largest-ever industrial research deals worth $25 million over five years. Sir Philip Cohen is not only Director of the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit, but recently received £10 million funding to set up the SCottish Institute for ceLL Signalling (SCILLS) at the University of Dundee, where he has been appointed as its first Director. The Division of Signal Transduction Therapy has also recently been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize. The University of Dundee has been voted for the past three years as the best scientific workplace in Europe and in the top 10 worldwide in an independent survey of scientists by Scientist magazine.
The University of Glasgow has recently invested £45M in research infrastructure. Three new Centres focus on areas of international research excellence, which will make most impact on the health of Scotland – cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infection, inflammation and immunity.
The University of Aberdeen has a history of major achievements which includes alumni and former staff being awarded four Nobel prizes. It was given the Queen’s Anniversary Prize which recognised the achievements of the Department of Biomedical Physics and Bioengineering in developing new techniques for medical imaging. In 2005, the University celebrated the silver anniversary of Aberdeen physicists and clinicians being the first in the world to scan the body of a patient using MRI. Millions of patients across the world have benefited from imaging technology since that pioneering breakthrough. Aberdeen has been ranked as the UK's most competitive city after London and among the top three UK cities in terms of knowledge-based businesses. Grampian is home to a world-class research base with a particular focus on life sciencesand an established culture of collaboration and commercialisation. The University of Aberdeen, at the centre of the region, enjoys an international reputation in a wide range of key areas such as biomedicine and environmental microbiology. The University of Aberdeen is also at the forefront of commercialisation with an impressive list of spin-out companies and potential licensing opportunities.
The city of Edinburgh has one of the largest concentrations of clinical scientists and researchers in the UK. The biotechnology industry in Scotland has grown at an average of 28% over the last four years compared with a 15% growth rate in the rest of Europe.