19 February 2004

Royal visit to University of Dundee

Photo arrangements: a pooling arrangement is in place. Photos of the Royal visit will be available from the Dundee Courier photo desk. 01382 223131.

HRH The Princess Royal will visit the University of Dundee on Wednesday 25 February to open the Dundee Cancer Therapeutic Facility at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School and name the new Queen Mother building which will house the Queen Mother Research Centre developing technology for the ageing population.

HRH The Princess Royal’s links with these projects are strong. She is the National Patron of Tenovus Scotland and will name the Queen Mother Research Centre for her grandmother.

University of Dundee Principal Sir Alan Langlands and Professor Peter Howie, President of Tenovus Tayside, the charity which has funded the £350,000 new cancer facility will meet HRH The Princess Royal at Ninewells. HRH The Princess Royal will hear a presentation on the new facility from Professor Sir David Lane and will visit the facility in the Medical School.

After Ninewells, HRH The Princess Royal will travel down to the University’s main campus in the City Centre to name the new Queen Mother building which will house the Queen Mother Research Centre where pioneering research is taking place into technology for the elderly. The late Queen Mother kindly gave her name to the centre shortly before her death to leave a legacy of her long association with the University of Dundee - she became the first Chancellor of the independent University of Dundee in 1967.

The Queen Mother Research Centre is costing over 2.5 million with £400,000 still to be raised.

In the University Chaplaincy HRH The Princess Royal will see a virtual tour of the centre on which building work has just started, and will unveil the virtual plaque on an LCD screen. University Chaplain Rev Dr Fiona Douglas will dedicate the plaque.

HRH The Princess Royal will then be given a tour of the current research projects on technology for the ageing population in the Division of Applied Computing by Professor Alan Newell.

Notes for Editors

Tenovus Scotland Tayside is a medical charity which raises funds to support medical research locally in Tayside. HRH The Princess Royal became the National Patron of Tenovus Scotland in 2003. Her first engagement in this capacity will be to open the Dundee Cancer Therapeutic Discovery Facility at Ninewells Hospital, to which Tenovus Tayside donated £350,000. The Dundee Cancer Therapeutic Discovery Facility will be devoted to the search for new drugs and antibodies to diagnose and treat cancer. By using new robotic technology coupled with the pooled chemical libraries of Dundee’s leading international life scientists, the process of testing compounds for potential drug development will be accelerated astronomically. Where 300-400 tests could previously be completed per week by hand, the facility’s new technology will allow up to 50,000 tests to be completed per day. Promising compounds can then be taken to the pharmaceutical companies for further development, thus speeding the vital journey from laboratory to clinic. Traditionally the search for new drugs has required the full scale resources of large pharmaceutical companies and involved commercially encumbered chemical libraries, with academic teams coming in at a later stage of development. But the new Dundee facility with its pooled chemical libraries and robotic screening processes will allow the academic team to pursue leads from the very earliest stages through to 'proof of principle' before involving industrial partners.

The Queen Mother Research Centre will be dedicated to developing technological support to ensure that older people and people with disabilities can lead better quality lives and take a more active role in society.

At the heart of the Queen Mother Research Centre will be a unique Research Theatre to test and demonstrate prototype equipment and applications in ‘real life’ settings such as a lounge, bedroom, supermarket or hospital ward, allowing users to discuss and feedback on research ideas. The Research Theatre will be a fifty seat studio theatre fully accessible for people with disabilities. It will have a stage area accessible from the auditorium, specialist video projection onto the stage area so that a 'video wall' can be created, and controllable video cameras to monitor and analyse performers and users.

The Research Centre will also have a dedicated Internet Café for users to meet, socialise and learn how to use the latest online technology. The Internet Café will also encourage groups of interested people to become directly involved with the researchers and their work.

The University of Dundee’s Applied Computing Department is the leading institute in the world researching applications designed specifically to enable older people and people with disabilities lead more independent lives.

By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk