Hollywood star Brian Cox - one of Scotland's most successful actors - today (Wednesday 2 April) confirmed his involvement in a major fundraising campaign to raise the final £4 million needed to build a world-class global diseases research facility in Dundee.
Dundee-born Brian Cox, who has suffered from Type 2 diabetes for the past four years - is famous for theatrical roles on the West End and Broadway. He has also carved out a career in Hollywood, winning a series of high-profile roles such as Hannibal Lecter in the film Manhunter, Daphne's father on Frasier and villain General William Stryker in soon-to-be-released blockbuster Xmen 2.
The new centre - scheduled to open in 2005 - will employ 180 scientists and will adjoin the existing Wellcome Trust Biocentre, which already employs some of Europe's top researchers. The centre - as yet unnamed - will seek improved treatments for diabetes and global parasitic diseases such as malaria. Work will begin in 2003.
Cox said: "Diabetes affects more than 150 million people worldwide, including nearly two million in the UK. That number is growing rapidly and diabetes is one of the fastest-growing threats to health in the UK today.
"The new centre will be run by Professor Sir Philip Cohen, one of the world's top scientists and a world expert on diabetes. But without major corporate donations towards the cost of the building the scientists will not be able to carry out important research to advance the understanding of diabetes and malaria and stimulate drugs to beat these diseases.
"Sir Philip's aim is to make Dundee and Scotland a world-leading centre in malaria and diabetes research and there are significant opportunities for companies willing to contribute to the project.
"The work going on in Dundee already is amazing. When I met Sir Philip he introduced me to Professor Grahame Hardie, who works at the Biocentre and is the man whose research led to the development of the drugs I take everyday to combat the effects of diabetes. If the new building receives the required funding, the potential for saving lives is nothing short of astounding."
Diabetes is caused by the failure of the pancreas to make insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or much more frequently by the failure of the body to respond to insulin (Type 2 diabetes). Diabetes decreases life expectancy by an average of 10 years. Improved drugs to prevent and/or treat Type 2 diabetes are needed urgently. The incidence of diabetes is expected to double to seven per cent of the UK population by 2020. There are more people with diabetes than cancer, yet diabetes research receives only one per cent of the funding that is spent on cancer research.
One child dies every 30 seconds in the developing world from malaria - more than 3,000 children every day and more than 1 million children every year. Tropical diseases attract very little attention from the pharmaceutical industry, because the affected people are too poor to buy medicines - the average healthcare budget in sub-Saharan Africa is less than £10 per person per year. The World Health Organisation (WHO) relies on the development of new drugs arising from academic research, like that in Dundee, to combat these terrible diseases.
Issued on behalf of the University of Dundee's School of Life Sciences by Weber Shandwick, for further information please contact: Vanessa Munnings/David Sawyer, Weber Shandwick, Tel. 0131 556 6649/07770 886915 (23) vmunnings@webershandwick.com
By Jane Smernicki, Press Officer 01382 344768 j.m.smernicki@dundee.ac.uk