DSTT collaboration attracts £14.4m in funding in the UK
To accelerate drug discovery in diseases including cancer and arthritis
The University of Dundee and the Medical Research Council (MRC) are to receive funding of more than £14m from a consortium of six pharmaceutical companies for continuing research into the development of new drugs for diseases including cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) consortium, which includes AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Merck-Serono and Pfizer, will provide core support of £14.4m over a four-year period from 2012–2016.
The DSTT includes 15 research teams based at the University of Dundee. Thirteen are within the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit and Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling (SCILLS) at the College of Life Sciences. Consortium scientists will continue early-stage research in multiple areas, including cancer, arthritis, lupus, hypertension and Parkinson’s disease.
The DSTT, a unique collaboration between scientists and the pharmaceutical industry, was founded in 1998, expanded in 2003 and renewed for a second time in 2008. With the latest third renewal, the DSTT will have attracted £50m in funding since it started.
This new round of funding will secure 50 jobs at Dundee for the next four years.
Professor Sir John Savill, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said: ‘The DSTT collaboration is a unique and highly effective partnership that allows academic researchers to collaborate with leading pharmaceutical companies to maximise the translation of basic research towards clinical benefit. We are proud to continue our support of a project that is greatly accelerating pharmaceutical drug discovery programmes for major diseases.’