Drug research: Queen's University to establish discovery centre

Image source, PA Media

  • Author, John Campbell
  • Role, 大象传媒 News NI economics and business editor

A new centre for drug discovery is to be established at Queen's University with funding from the government and pharmaceutical firm Almac.

It will focus on a form of drug discovery called chemoproteomics.

It involves studying the interaction between small molecules and the proteins produced by the human body.

The funding is part of a programme that encourages collaboration between business and academia.

Chemoproteomics is a way to find new starting points for creating biological tools and first-of-their-kind drugs, particularly for diseases that currently have no effective treatments.

Prof Tim Harrison, vice president of Almac Discovery, said the aim was to build "an internationally-recognised resource", which would accelerate the research and development programmes with industrial and academic partners.

Prof Christopher Scott, dean of research at the Queen's medical faculty, said: "Our vision is that this Centre of Excellence will become a national asset that can help support broader research and education pipelines nationally."

The centre is one of ten bioscience "prosperity partnership programmes" being established by the government-funded Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.