New state-of-the-art Influenza and Stem Cell centre opens
Wednesday 20 October, 2010
A new £16m Influenza Resource Centre and UK Stem Cell Bank opened today, supported with £6.6m from the Medical Research Council (MRC). It will be dedicated to supporting the development of vaccines for preventing both seasonal and pandemic influenza. It will also house the UK Stem Cell Bank - a world leading initiative designed to help translate exciting research into successful clinical treatments by providing ethically approved, quality controlled stem cell lines for research.
The new laboratory development, which was officially opened by Public Health Minister, Anne Milton MP today, represents a unique partnership between the Health Protection Agency (HPA), Department of Health, Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and is situated at the HPA’s National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) in Hertfordshire.
More than 40 scientists will be based at the high-tech laboratories, some of whom played a crucial role in developing an effective vaccine against pandemic H1N1 ‘swine’ flu. The scientists include one of just a few teams in the world tasked with responding to pandemics by rapidly developing virus strains that can be used for large scale vaccine manufacture. In May 2009 they were able to make and send out producer strains for H1N1 vaccine production in less than a month.
The stem cell team in the new Centre is supporting researchers in the UK and abroad to develop effective therapies for devastating conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, severe spinal trauma and multiple sclerosis.
Dr Stephen Inglis, director of NIBSC said:
“This new building gives us first class facilities for the research and development needed both to counter a major global threat and also to speed the development of new classes of medicine that have the potential to revolutionise clinical treatment in years to come. The health impact of the work to be done here will be felt by thousands, if not millions of people here and abroad in years to come and we are delighted that Anne Milton MP is here to witness first-hand some of this work today and officially open our new centre.”
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