New scheme to bring translational research into university labs

Image courtesy NIH

Mike Ferguson, Dean of Research in the College of Life Sciences, who is overseeing the portfolio said, “We are hoping that the pilot will be a great success and turn into a permanent feature of biomedical research activity here. It makes a lot of sense to let institutions that are well placed to perform translational medical research to manage it themselves – it makes for greater speed, flexibility, and innovation.”

The ten projects that are about to start include one, led by Stuart Brown of the Institute for Medical Science and Technology, to develop a new surgical tool to improve keyhole surgery, a technique developed in Dundee by Alfred Cuscheri.

“This project should realise a new system of organ retraction for all minimal access surgical approaches, including single port keyhole surgery by avoiding the need for traditional graspers,” said Cuscheri.

A second project, led by John Foerster at the School of Medicine, aims to develop a new medicated cream for the treatment of psoriasis. “We have most recently identified a cell signalling pathway central in this devastating skin disease,” said Foerster. “This new funding scheme allows us to get on the fast track and take this discovery straight into the preclinical development.”

Another eight projects have been rolled into one super-project that will be managed by Julie Frearson, in the Drug Discovery Unit in the College of Life Sciences. The aim is to move eight individual molecular discoveries towards potential treatments. Frearson said, “Each of these projects is backed by the top experts in their fields who work right here in Dundee. This is a unique and exciting opportunity to expose multiple novel target concepts to medicinal chemistry expertise.”