A surprise bequest by "an ordinary Dundee couple" has paid for a state-of-the-art laser microscope which will help cancer scientists at the University of Dundee to understand bowel cancer. The medical charity Tenovus presented the £130,000 laser dissecting microscope to leader of the research team Dr Frank Carey at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School.
The money was left by post office engineers Ann and Bert Duff who died childless, in their late years. Bert died first then Ann went into care and passed away two years ago.
Their will executor Miss Liz Murison, a Dundee Council worker whose mother was a lifelong friend of the Duffs said: "They were an ordinary, private couple who lived modestly in Dundee. I was gobsmacked to find they died leaving all this money to Tenovus and cancer research - it's a complete mystery."
Cancer of the bowel affects more than 30,000 people in the UK annually and is a major problem in Scotland. Following evidence that some genetic abnormalities in cancers may relate directly to food components and to the genetic variability between individuals, the Dundee University team are examining diet-related changes across all chromosomes. They are also studying these changes in polyps, the precursors of cancers.
The laser dissecting microscope, believed to be only the second in Scotland, is so powerful it can pick out individual cells from tissue allowing their DNA and protein to be analysed.
Dr Carey explained: "This is a generous and very welcome donation which will enormously benefit our research into bowel cancer. We can use the microscope to pick out small numbers of malignant cells, extract them then analyse them for early stage mutations."/ends
Notes for Editors
1 TENOVUS - SCOTLAND is a medical research charity founded in 1967 by a
group of ten citizens (the ten-of-us) whose careers and callings were as
diverse as one could imagine and yet, without exception their primary
aim was to further the cause of medical research by "priming the pump" for
innovative projects.
2 The University of Dundee is a world leader in the field of cancer research.