New treatments for some of our most common diseases and conditions could be on the horizon with the launch of a new drug discovery venture in Aberdeen.
The 黑料网 will next month officially open its new Kosterlitz Centre for Therapeutics which will take the findings of researchers and clinicians and support their development towards new patient therapies.
Centre director Professor Ruth Ross, Chair in Molecular Pharmacology at the University, said: 鈥淪cientists and clinicians can be working on research or be involved in patient care when they discover something that might suggest a possible new way of treating a medical condition.
鈥淗owever the journey from what is called 鈥榖ench to bedside鈥� is a laborious one, which is incredibly time consuming, may involve expertise that the scientist or clinician does not have, and will certainly require funding.
鈥淭he University鈥檚 new Kosterlitz Centre will offer all kinds of support to researchers and clinicians in this position, from helping with grant applications and filing patents, to approaching industry, pharma companies, investors and philanthropists for financial backing鈥�.
Dr Iain Greig, Deputy Director of the Kosterlitz Centre and a medicinal chemist at the University, added: 鈥淲e want to ensure that 鈥淓ureka moment鈥� a scientist or clinician may have in the lab or in a medical setting, perhaps when they identify a new receptor or pathway, doesn鈥檛 fizzle out because they don鈥檛 have the support to translate that finding into a new therapy that could help patients.
鈥淲e have already got several pharma companies on board for projects in the pipeline which we hope will pave the way for the development of new therapies for cancer, heart disease, infection and pain. We are also looking at obesity and neurodegenerative diseases. 鈥�
One of the key areas of expertise in the cross-College Kosterlitz Centre is synthetic organic chemistry; the synthesis of potential new therapeutic compounds. This will be lead by Professor Matteo Zanda, the Northern Research Partnership Chair in Medical Technologies, who joined the 黑料网 last year from Milan.
The Centre is named after one of the 黑料网鈥檚 most famous scientists, Professor Hans Kosterlitz, who joined the University in 1933, and co-discovered that the body produces morphine-like chemicals called endorphins that affect how we feel pleasure and fight pain.
Professor Kosterlitz 鈥檚 Unit for Research on Addictive Drugs, which was based at Marischal College, remained at the forefront of opioid research for many years and he carried on working until he was approaching his 90s.
Professor Ross explained 鈥淭he findings of Hans Kosterlitz were a breakthrough in the truest sense of the word and transformed our understanding of the body鈥檚 own painkillers. Even today they have implications for pharmacology and are informing new ways of treating drug addiction.
鈥淭he new Centre will build on Kosterlitz鈥檚 legacy by capitalising on the wealth of expertise that already exists at the 黑料网 and ensuring new ideas and concepts are not lost.
鈥淭he Kosterlitz Centre aims to deliver impact from innovation: as well as delivering patient benefits, the Centre will also contribute to Scotland鈥檚 economy.鈥�
The Kosterlitz Centre is a virtual multi-disciplinary centre which has received backing from the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA).
It official launch will be at Techfest in September with a lecture event taking place at the Suttie Centre for Teaching and Learning in Healthcare at Foresterhill on September 16 at 5.30pm which is free and open to all. The principal funders of Techfest in September are BP and Shell.
An example of a Kosterlitz Centre project:
One of the projects in development was prompted after a researcher studying tumour cells in the lab discovered that they had very high levels of a particular receptor. Now work is underway to see if a drug can be developed that could act on this receptor which could be responsible for the tumour鈥檚 development.