Dundee University secures £30m for ‘life-changing’ research into fatal diseases

Scottish researchers have secured £30m in funding from the UK Government to continue “life-changing” research into fatal diseases.

The fund will help the team, which holds a track record in health breakthroughs, unlock new treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, which affect thousands of people in Scotland.  

The cash boost will allow researchers to continue using "cutting-edge" technology and biochemistry to explore cell transmission. 

To date, the Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (PPU), based at Dundee University, has helped deliver more than 40 drugs, including one used to treat patients suffering from skin cancer.

Announcing the fund, science secretary Peter Kyle said: “As we embark on a decade of national renewal, the higher education sector has a profound role to play in every piece of work we’ll need to do, to build a Britain that delivers for working people, from seizing the potential of clean energy to rebuilding the NHS. I will always champion our universities.

“They are society’s most powerful engines for innovation, aspiration, economic growth and the creation of better lives for all – which is why investing in their work, like this £30m in funding, is so important.”

It is understood that the research will also help deliver new treatment for Crohn’s and coeliac disease.

Awarded by the UKRI’s Medical Research Council (MRC), the new cash injection will carry on for the next five years, “cementing” Scotland’s role in making Britain a “powerhouse” for life sciences, the government said.

Professor Dario Alessi, director of the MRC PPU said: “Our mission for the next five years will be to work with leading research centres, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies to translate our discoveries into clinical progress and accelerate drug discovery. Whilst doing this research we aim to provide our staff with a unique training opportunity working in a collaborative multidisciplinary environment paying attention to improving culture and development best practices.”