12 September 2007

Huge boost to diabetes research campaign

The University of Dundee’s Diabetes Research Campaign has received a huge boost with pledges totalling £800,000 from two of the country’s leading charitable trusts.

The Gannochy Trust has pledged £500,000 to support the creation of a unique Patient Research Facility at Perth Royal Infirmary, while the Robertson Trust will give £300,000 to help create a specialist Diabetes Translational Research Institute, which will be at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee. The campaign has now reached the half way mark with more than £1.6m already raised.

The Diabetes Research Campaign aims to raise over £3million towards state of the art research and patient care facilities across Angus, Dundee and Perth & Kinross. These will add to the world-class diabetes research programmes which are already well-established through the University and NHS Tayside.

"This is fantastic news for the Campaign and we are delighted to receive this support from two organisations who have been magnificent supporters of what we are trying to achieve in medical research," said Professor Andrew Morris, Professor of Diabetic Medicine at the University of Dundee.

"This kind of charitable support is absolutely key to realising our goals of creating a new research network across Tayside, which will have a positive impact for patients across the region and boost the international efforts to combat diabetes."

"The research we are carrying out in Tayside plays a key role in that international effort and the support we continue to receive from the public is absolutely central to that."

"The new facilities that will be established through the Diabetes Research Campaign will make a huge difference to how people across the region can engage with our research efforts."

Creating new facilities in Perth and Forfar are key components of the Diabetes Research Campaign. The Gannochy Trust’s donation will support the creation of a unique Patient Research Facility at Perth Royal Infirmary, attracting world-class academic and research staff to PRI and helping to establish a focus of excellence for diabetes care and research at the heart of the Perth community.

In addition, the University is expanding the diabetes research facilities already well-established at Ninewells. This will include the creation of the specialist Diabetes Translational Research Institute, supported by the Robertson Trust.

The Institute will aid the rapid translation of research findings to the clinic, helping explore new treatments and accelerate more effective drug discoveries. It will link in to existing clinical and laboratory facilities and services.

The fundraising effort for the Diabetes Research Campaign continues this week with a fundraising concert on Friday night featuring two of Dundee’s finest performers - Michael Marra and Sheena Wellington.

The concert takes place in the Bonar Hall at 8 pm. Tickets, priced £12.50, are available at Groucho’s in Dundee or by visiting www.dundee.ac.uk/drc

NOTES TO EDITORS

Diabetes in Dundee - outstanding research opportunities from ‘bench to bedside’.

The Dundee Diabetes Research Centre is a forum that has united the 27 Dundee research teams and more than 100 researchers who all have an interest in diabetes across many disciplines, across all four Colleges of the University. This has allowed us not only to build upon our existing strengths, but also to focus our expertise on translational medicine. This is defined as ‘bench to bedside’ research where theories emerging from experiments in the laboratory are tested on patient volunteers. Translational medicine also goes from bedside to bench: information obtained from preliminary human experiments is used to refine our understanding of the biological systems and principles underpinning different human diseases. This leads to better patient care and treatment and faster discoveries of new and improved treatments and drugs.

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Roddy Isles
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