Queen's Announces New Belfast Medical Centre

A new "world leading" experimental medicine centre has been announced for Belfast.

£32m of funding has been secured by Queen’s University for the centre, due to open in 2016.

The Centre for Experimental Medicine will specialise in scientific research and will work towards finding cures for eye disease, diabetes and genetic illnesses.

QUB Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Peter Gregson said the people of Northern Ireland would be "the real winners" as they will benefit from "improved diagnosis and treatments of debilitating diseases".

He said: "Queen's University is well advanced in creating an internationally recognised Institute of Health Sciences that will become a global leader in medical research and education.

"This will be further enhanced through the creation of the Centre for Experimental Medicine, a centre that will transform healthcare in Northern Ireland and beyond."

"This exciting new development has been made possible through generous philanthropic support with leveraged investment through the UK Research Partnership Infrastructure Fund."

£15m of funding was donated by The Atlantic Philanthropies. Other funders include The Welcome Trust, The Wolfson Foundation, The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust, Insight Trust for the Visually Impaired and The Queen's University of Belfast Foundation.

The Atlantic Philanthropies is a global organisation founded by the Irish-American billionaire, Chuck Feeney, a well-known philanthropist who traces his Irish ancestry to County Fermanagh.

Professor Patrick Johnston, the university Dean of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, said the new centre would help to "stimulate additional investment, lead to further global collaborations and create more opportunities for new health and biotech companies" in Northern Ireland.

He said the development would "help provide a synergy between clinicians and scientists, ensuring that laboratory discoveries translate into advances in patient diagnosis and treatment."

(IT)