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Newcastle to train scientists for future

Newcastle University has won funding for a new centre aimed at creating “scientists needed for Britain’s future”. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - the UK funding body for science and engineering - awarded the money last week.

The new £20m training centre for Biopharmaceutical Process Development at Newcastle University will be dedicated to fine-tuning drug development - getting new drugs to patients safely, quickly and efficiently.

Led by Professors Elaine Martin and Gary Montague from the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, the new centre will bring together expertise from across the University as well as some of the leading pharmaceutical industries both in the North East and across the UK.

Professor Martin said: “Our aim is to make the North East the UK leader in bio-processing - attracting the best students to work alongside local industries to create a bio-processing hub to rival the best in the world.

“The new centre will focus on taking a drug from the point of discovery through the long and complex process that is required to make it available to patients. We’ll be looking at ways to speed up this process, reducing the time between a new drug being found and patients actually being prescribed it.”

Newcastle University Vice Chancellor Professor Chris Brink said: “This is another step on the road towards Newcastle as a city of science. I am pleased that the University is able to make this contribution, and would like to congratulate our scientists on winning the prestigious award of an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .