TMRC announces first round of projects

The Translational Medicine Research Collaboration (TMRC) has announced the first round of research projects to be funded through the new £50 million initiative.

The unique venture brings together one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Co with Scotland's finest medical research centres including the Universities of Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scottish Enterprise and NHS Scotland Grampian, Greater Glasgow, Lothian and Tayside.

Almost £8 million of funding has been released to support 28 new research projects covering a wide range of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular and metabolic disease, the central nervous system, oncology, inflammation, and women's health.

The projects will commence imminently across Scotland and, as a result, over 40 new jobs have already been created in the universities while a further 50 new jobs are projected for the Core Laboratory in Dundee, rising to as many as 120 over five years.

Translational medicine is broadly defined as 'bench to bedside' research where laboratory findings lead to the development of therapeutics for treating and preventing disease.

The Scottish-Wyeth Collaboration provides new impetus for Scotland to lead the world in the development of personalised medicine, bringing new treatments to patients suffering from a range of serious illnesses.

Professor Andrew Morris, chair of Diabetic Medicine at the University of Dundee and chair of the TMRC Steering Group, said, "This first large injection of medical research funding into Centres of Excellence across Scotland is an important milestone for TMRC. The spirit of collaboration between the partners has been fantastic, and we have already set our sights on supporting more researchers in innovative ways in the months ahead."

Frank Walsh, Executive Vice President of Wyeth Discovery, said, "We are very excited about the quality of the science that will be conducted as a result of the first round of TMRC projects. Through this first round alone over 160 scientists across Scotland will be conducting research as part of this collaboration, the results of which could help drive the development of novel drugs for devastating diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer."

Further projects to be funded through TMRC are already in the pipeline and application for funding is being invited from the scientific community in Scotland. More information is available from Research and Innovation Services.