Business Secretary Greg Clark today announced听funding for a series of ambitious technology projects that will transform the way medicines are discovered, enabling the pharmaceutical industry to develop groundbreaking drugs faster, cheaper and better than ever before.

Our partnership in the institute gives us access to, and a leading role in, developing the step changing technologies that will revolutionise the way we do biology

Kathryn Lilley

探花直播projects are the first wave of major initiatives for the 拢103m听Rosalind Franklin Institute, that launched听today at the Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire.

New drugs are discovered through a slow and painstaking process of trial and error, often taking ten years and billions of pounds to develop. 探花直播Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI) is investing 拢6m to create:

  • 探花直播World鈥檚 most advanced real-time video camera, the key to a new technique that uses light and sound to eradicate some of the most lethal forms of cancer.
  • A new project pioneering fully-automated hands-free molecular discovery to produce new drugs up to ten times faster and transform the UK鈥檚 pharmaceutical industry.
  • A ground-breaking new UK facility that will revolutionise the way samples are produced and harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate new drugs for clinical testing within a few weeks.

探花直播RFI will harness disruptive new technologies such as AI and robotics to dramatically improve our understanding of biology, leading to new diagnostics, new drugs, and new treatments for millions of patients Worldwide. It will pioneer new ways of working with industry, as part of the UK鈥檚 AI and Data Grand Challenge, bridging the gap between university research and pharmaceutical companies or small businesses. This will build on the Government鈥檚 modern Industrial Strategy and put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future.

鈥婸rofessor Ian Walmsey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation at the 探花直播 of Oxford and Chair of the RFI鈥檚 Interim Board said:听鈥 探花直播RFI will pioneer disruptive technologies and new ways of working to revolutionise our understanding of biology, leading to new diagnostics, new drugs, and new treatments for millions of patients Worldwide. It will bring university researchers together with industry experts in one facility and embrace high-risk, adventurous research, that will transform the way we develop new medicines.鈥

探花直播institute is听an independent听organisation听funded by the UK government through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and operated by ten UK universities, including the听 探花直播 of Cambridge.听听from Cambridge's Department of Biochemistry is the听RFI's听programme听lead in Biological Mass Spectrometry.

" 探花直播Rosalind Franklin Institute will offer a globally unique suite of technologies which will enable new understanding of biology, leading to new diagnostics, new drugs and new treatments," says Professor Lilley. "For Cambridge, our partnership in the institute gives us access to, and a leading role in, developing the step changing technologies that will revolutionise the way we do biology."

探花直播namesake of the institute, the pioneering X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, was one of the key figures in the discovery of the structure of DNA, and used a technique with roots in physics and technology to transform life science. 探花直播Institute will follow in this spirit, developing unique new techniques and tools and听applying them for the first time to biological problems.

Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC鈥檚 Executive Chair, said: 鈥淎s EPSRC is the main delivery partner for the Rosalind Franklin Institute, I am extremely pleased to see the Institute officially launched today. Research here at the Harwell hub, and at the universities that form the spokes of the Institute, will help the UK maintain a leading position in the application of engineering and physical sciences to problems in the life sciences.鈥

It operates on a 鈥榟ub and spokes鈥 model, with听a central hub at the听Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, delivered by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). 探花直播hub, opening in 2020, will house a unique portfolio of scientific tools and researchers from both industry and academia.听Equipment and researchers will also be听located in spokes distributed throughout the partner network of universities.

探花直播hub at Harwell is a four storey, 拢40m build, which is being project managed and delivered by STFC. With the fa莽ade of the building reflecting the iconic work of Rosalind Franklin, the hub will house the majority of the technologies produced for the Institute, and will have world leading capabilities in imaging and drug discovery, creating a globally unique centre of excellence in life science. It will be home to 150 researchers from industry and academia, working closely with neighbouring facilities at Harwell including the Diamond Light Source and STFC鈥檚 Central Laser Facility.

EPSRC and STFC are part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

Adapted from a press release from the .


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