SULSA builds on life sciences excellence

The University of Dundee is leading a key theme of a new £77 million Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) initiative.

One of six Scottish universities involved in SULSA, Dundee life scientists will lead the Translational Biology focus of the new venture.

"SULSA's three themes of Cell Biology, Systems Biology and Translational Biology play to the strengths of Life Sciences research at the University of Dundee," said Professor Pete Downes, Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Life Sciences.

"We are the lead institute in Translational Biology which links basic research on disease mechanisms with the expertise necessary to create new drugs that can be developed into new treatments."

"This builds on our other recent major developments in Dundee, including the opening of the £21 million Sir James Black Centre, the award of £8.1 million from the Wellcome Trust for a programme to develop drugs for the treatment of major tropical diseases, and the selection of Dundee to host the core laboratory for the Translational Medicine Research Institute funded by U.S. pharmaceuticals giant, Wyeth, and Scottish Enterprise."

"We look forward to further building on Scotland's excellence in life sciences".

Professor Downes said he expected that Dundee would receive a significant cash injection from the new initiative, probably amounting to several million pounds over the next five years.