The School of Life Sciences, in close collaboration with the Medical Research Council (MRC), recently announced renewal of a major collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry; meaning the largest research funding ever awarded to the University of Dundee.
The School MRC have reached agreement with six of the world’s major pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Co., Inc. (of Whitehouse Station, N.J., U.S.A.), Merck KGaA (of Darmstadt, Germany) and Pfizer) to renew support of their research collaboration to facilitate the development of new drugs to fight cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and other serious diseases. The companies will provide funding of more than £15 million over five years - almost double the amount awarded for the previous five years.
Researchers in the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy, based at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre, focus on two classes of enzymes, termed kinases and phosphatases, which have become some of the most important classes of drug target in the pharmaceutical industry. Broadening our understanding of how these enzymes regulate the body’s function is helping to advance the development of drugs to treat many diseases, including cancer, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
Sir Philip Cohen, Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit and co-director of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy said, "Dundee is the largest academic centre in Europe, if not the world, for the study of kinases and phosphatases.
The availability of so many drug targets, reagents and ‘know-how’ in a single centre is a major reason why we have received this award. It shows how useful the technology we have developed has become to the pharmaceutical industry."
"I would also like to pay tribute to Dr Robert Ford of the University’s Research and Innovation Services and Dr John Kelly, MRC Technology, London, who have spent an enormous amount of time and effort bringing negotiations to a successful conclusion. This new five year collaboration is something we can all be proud of and reflects the success of the previous five years. Six pharmaceutical companies working in collaboration with Dundee DSTT and MRC is an exciting and promising prospect for generating new healthcare products"
Martin MacKay, Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Discovery Research, Pfizer said "This productive collaboration continues to be an important element within Pfizer’s network of research collaborations worldwide and we look forward to building on the excellent relationship that we have enjoyed with the University of Dundee during the last 5 years"
Dr Malcolm Skingle, Director, European Academic Liaison at GlaxoSmithKline commented, "We are delighted to be involved in another important collaboration involving scientists from industry and academia working towards a shared goal, that of increasing our understanding of human disease and finding new treatments for the patients that need them."