Dundee joins international research network

The University has been invited to join an international network of research centres established by Professor Christian Brechot, Director General of Inserm (Institut National de la Sante Et de la Recherche Medicale), the French equivalent of the MRC.

Inserm laboratories have already been established in Japan, South Korea, Shanghai, Heidelberg (EMBO), University of Glasgow and University of Harvard. Dundee has now been invited to take part.

With a budget in excess of 500 million Euro, Professor Brechot took the initiative to fund research outside his home country with the aim of creating an international network of research centres that will face new challenges linked to globalisation.

The invitation to participate followed a visit by Professor Brechot and members of the French Embassy to Dundee in September last year, when they met the Principal Sir Alan Langlands, Dean of the School of Life Sciences Professor Peter Downes, Dean of the Medical School Professor Brian Burchell and Professor Sir David Lane.

As a first step to the collaboration, Dr Jean-Christophe Bourdon and his group at the University of Dundee will be associated with the Inserm laboratory directed by Dr Anne-Catherine Prats at the Cancer Research Centre of Toulouse.

PhD student exchanges will be made possible through the creation of a joint PhD programme between Dundee and Toulouse Universities. Senior scientists and clinicians will also have the opportunity to spend time at each research centre.

Already, Inserm and the University have held a joint conference in Toulouse, bringing together the scientific and medical fields, representatives of French and British Institutions, and industrial partners.

At the conference Professor Christian Brechot presented the Inserm 'Foreign Prize' to Professor Sir David Lane, Director of the CR-UK Cell Transformation Research Group, in the Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology.