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In
the footsteps of local science great There are some big names associated with the University of Dundee’s Sir James Black Centre in Scotland. The first is its namesake, Sir James Black – Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate and former chancellor of the university. The centre is also home to a host of other renowned scientists, several of them EMBO Members. Another famous name, not often heard in scientific circles, is Brian Cox, Dundee-born Hollywood actor, who helped raise funds for the centre. Sir James Black is a fitting figurehead for the new centre. The Glasgow-born scientist grew up near Dundee, working there as a lecturer in the University of St Andrew’s Physiology Department from 1946-1947. Most famous for developing the beta-blocker, a drug that revolutionised treatment of heart disease, Sir James received the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1988 for his contributions to drug design. All the more appropriate then that a centre with a focus on drug discovery should carry his name. The new centre is part of the university’s College of Life Sciences, where EMBO Member Sir Philip Cohen leads 70 groups in the latest biomedical and life sciences research. Sir Philip was the first EMBO Member in Dundee. Today that number has increased more than ten-fold. Dario Alessi, the 2005 EMBO Gold Medal winner, Julian Blow, Doreen Cantrell, Michael Ferguson, Angus Lamond, Sir David Lane, David Lilley, Cheryll Tickle, Colin Watts and Jeffrey Williams are all based at the College, alongside EMBO Young Investigators Daan van Aalten and John Rouse. Research into the causes and treatment of disease is an important focal point for the College of Life Sciences. The Sir James Black Centre will carry this forward, expanding research into diabetes, cancer and tropical parasitic diseases. The centre’s Drug Discovery Unit targets some of the world’s most neglected tropical diseases including African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. At present there are no vaccines for these infections and little interest in developing them within the pharmaceutical industry. The unit aims to fill this gap and provide new candidate drugs for clinical trials. Funding for the Sir James Black Centre came from commercial income, generated by the College of Life Sciences, university investment and a fundraising campaign led by Michael Ferguson, Philip Cohen and Brian Cox. The Dundonian actor suffers from Type 2 diabetes, one of the diseases under investigation at the new centre, and is best known for his high-profile roles in theatre and Hollywood blockbusters such as Troy and X-Men 2. The latter was an important source of funding for the new centre with the entire proceeds of the Scottish premiere going towards the building. Both Brian Cox and Sir James Black have been back to visit the centre since it was opened in June 2006 by Nobel laureate and EMBO Member Sydney Brenner. Sir James was clearly impressed with how things had developed since he worked in Dundee. “This is the busiest beehive I have ever been to – everywhere I’ve been and everyone I’ve spoken to has been absolutely buzzing. It is very exciting to see the work that is being done here, and that Dundee is continuing to push forward so strongly in the life sciences. It's all a bit of a change from the kind of laboratories I was used to working in, and extremely impressive.”
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