15 November 2010
Opening of Pat McPherson Centre - Monday 15th November
Photo opportunity: 3pm on Monday, 15th November at The Pat McPherson Centre for Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacogenetics, Level 5, Ninewells Hospital. Lord Naren Patel, Chancellor of the University of Dundee, will officially open the Centre, accompanied by other dignitaries.
A new £3.2million cancer research centre, named in honour of one of Dundee's leading
philanthropists, will be officially opened this afternoon.
The Pat McPherson Centre for Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacogenetics is part of the University of Dundee’s Biomedical Research Institute, situated at Ninewells Hospital. Dr McPherson, who died in March 2008, was a highly successful businessman and someone who worked tirelessly to help raise millions of pounds for cancer research.
Leading-edge research into personalised medicine is carried out at the state-of-the-art laboratories. The facility was made possible through funding from the Ninewells Cancer Campaign, an organisation that Dr McPherson himself founded and developed together with its Chairman, Dr Jacqui Wood.
The official opening ceremony will be performed by Lord Naren Patel, Chancellor of the University of Dundee. As well as helping to establish Dundee as a world-renowned centre of excellence for cancer research, Dr McPherson was a great champion of the University and a member of its Court for 10 years.
He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dundee in 1986, and the University created the Pat McPherson Chair of Cancer Biology in recognition of his work to raise millions of pounds for cancer research shortly before he died.
Professor Roland Wolf, Director of the Biomedical Research Institute, paid tribute to Dr McPherson,
who he described as an 'exceptional man and one of Dundee's greatest philanthropists'.
'It is fitting that a Centre such as this should be named in honour of Pat McPherson,' he said.
'The fact that Dundee has been established as one of the world's leading centres for cancer research is in no small part thanks to his generosity and determination in raising vast sums to enable us to establish the first-class infrastructure that allows us to attract some of the world's best cancer scientists.
'It was Pat who founded the Ninewells Cancer Campaign, which has made this development possible by providing the funding. He was also responsible for the recruitment of Dr Jacqui Wood to Dundee, and she and Pat worked side-by-side for over 17 years as the Campaign achieved great things.
'I think Pat would be delighted to see the work we will be carrying out in the Centre which bears his name. We are examining the factors that determine why certain individuals respond differently to drugs and treatments than others. An example of this is a genetic test we developed to determine the reaction of breast cancer sufferers to treatment.
'Developing individually tailored cancer treatments will lead to much improved outcomes for patients, and is at the forefront of Cancer Research UK’s strategy to beat cancer.'
The new Centre will house Professor Kevin Hiom, the holder of the Pat McPherson Chair, and other researchers, including Dr Gareth Inman, recently recruited from the Beatson Institute of Cancer Research in Glasgow, Professor Colin Palmer and Dr Gillian Smith, working on personalised treatments for cancer and other diseases.
The opening ceremony will take place on Monday, 15th November, when Professor Wolf will welcome visitors before Lord Patel officially declares the Centre open.
Guests, including representatives of the various charitable bodies who contributed to the Appeal to create the Centre, will then be invited to tour the new laboratory facilities.
One of these organisations was Cancer Research UK, with which Dr McPherson worked closely both as a life governor of the then Imperial Cancer Research Fund and as a member of its Scottish Advisory Board and subsequently with Cancer Research UK.
Dr Sally Burtles, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer centres, said, 'The opening of this centre is great news for cancer research in Dundee. As the era of personalised medicine starts to become a reality it will be important to have centres such as this that can research and develop the tests that will determine the best treatments for individual patients or groups of patients.'
Notes to editors:
About Dr Pat McPherson:
For decades Dr McPherson led the expansion of Wright Dental into one of the leaders in its field in the UK - only one of a long list of business and charitable interests that made him one of the most prominent and active members of the community.
The former Dundee High School pupil served in the RAF, and upon demob bought the F. H. Wright Dental Manufacturing Company in 1946. At the time it was a small concern, but under his guidance it grew to employ over 450 people and export to 80 countries.
He had many other business interests, and a number of civic and charitable organisations also benefited from his talents.
The crowning achievement of his charitable works was his long-term involvement with cancer research, which helped to raise many millions for scientists and doctors working at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and helped the University of Dundee to attract some of the world's leading researchers.
Shortly before his death in 2008 the University created a Chair in Cancer Biology in tribute to him,
with the aim of attracting to the post a scientist who would 'show the same qualities of determination, integrity and selflessness that epitomise the influence of Pat McPherson on the life and work of the University.'
The University had already honoured Dr McPherson by awarding him an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 1986. He served as a member of the University Court for 10 years and as Convener of its Finance Committee for eight years.
His decades of public service were also recognised when he awarded an OBE in 1987.
It was when he was serving as vice-chairman of a fundraising appeal to bring Roland Wolf to Dundee to head the Biomedical Research Centre that Dr Jacqui Wood came to speak to the Rotary Club. That was the start of a partnership that has helped to make this city one of the most renowned centres for cancer research not only in the UK but in the world.
About the Pat McPherson Centre for Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacogenetics:
The Pat McPherson Centre for Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacogenetics at Ninewells Hospital hosts a world-leading research programme on personalised cancer medicine. This ambitious translational research programme will significantly increase our understanding of the many complex factors that contribute to inter-individual differences in cancer development and progression and has a particular focus on individuality in treatment response.
Individual cancer patients often respond quite differently to chemotherapy but the majority of current chemotherapy treatments are prescribed in the same way for all patients. While this results in optimal drug treatment for the majority of patients, up to one third of patients are thought to receive too little drug for adequate cancer treatment and approximately one in ten patients receive too much drug, resulting in treatment-limiting side effects. There are also marked differences in how cancer patients respond to other drugs e.g. anti-sickness drugs, commonly prescribed as part of chemotherapy treatment.
We know that individual cancer patients break down chemotherapy drugs differently and we aim to use this knowledge to measure drug levels in individual cancer patients and to use this information to predict the most appropriate drugs and treatment doses. We also know that not all tumours respond to the same drugs and we will therefore additionally use our knowledge of tumour genetics to guide selection of the most appropriate drug, at the most appropriate dose, for each cancer patient.
This translational research programme builds on already close collaborations between cancer patients, oncologists, surgeons, research nurses and laboratory scientists in Ninewells Hospital & Medical School.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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